ALIEN: GENESIS
by Anguirus1955
Summary: When a towing vehicle carrying an extra supply barge to Origae-6 intercepts a transmission from the USCSS Covenant, the crew notice a discrepancy regarding the Covenant's original flight path and the actual source location of the ship's transmission. Realizing that not all is as it seems, the crew of the towing vehicle USCSS Grand Oak decide to investigate.
1. Brothers In Circuits

**ALIEN: GENESIS**

Disclaimer: The ALIEN franchise and all related characters wherein are the intellectual property of 20th Century Fox.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 01: BROTHERS IN CIRCUITS**

* * *

 **DATE: ONE YEAR AND NINE MONTHS PRIOR TO THE LAUNCH OF THE USCSS COVENANT**

 **WEYLAND-YUTANI LABS, WYOMING DIVISION, NORTH AMERICA, EARTH**

Two figures were laying on tables in a large pale room. Both figures were humanoid, male in physical appearance, and clothed in simple track suits. Both figures measured at 5.5 feet from head to foot. One of them had dark brown hair, while the other one had black hair. One figure had his eyes closed, while the other had his eyes opened, staring up at the ceiling before furrowing his brows in contemplation. He slowly sat up and looked around the room, seeing a middle-aged man with a mustache dressed in a dark blue business suit standing in a corner of the room near a door.

The man in the business suit, whose hair was dark brown and wore glasses, smiled at him before stepping forward. He quietly made his way over to the tables where the two "men" were located. "Happy birthday, Emmitt and Earl," the man said cordially. Emmitt, the one who was already sitting up, eyed the man curiously. He looked at the man's name tag, which read _**H. Carroll**_.

"Hello, H. Carroll," Emmitt said. Carroll chuckled in amusement. "It's just Carroll, Emmitt. Or Mister Carroll, if you'd prefer," Mr. Carroll said.

Emmitt blinked curiously at Mr. Carroll. "Okay," Emmitt said quietly, nodding his head in contemplation. "You seem a bit out of sorts," Mr. Carroll noted with some amusement in his voice. "Tell me, Emmitt, what do you see in this room?" Mr. Carroll asked him.

Emmitt tilted his head questioningly before looking around and scanning his surroundings. "I see walls. I see a floor. I see a ceiling," Emmitt said. He then looked at the other figure; Earl.

"I see... Earl? Is that his name?" Emmitt asked curiously. "Yes," Mr. Carroll replied with a nod of his head. "He is your sibling. You were both made in the same lab and from the same blueprints, with minor alterations here and there," Mr. Carroll explained. "We are... synthetic," Emmitt observed.

"Yes. You are both synthetic," Mr. Carroll said in agreement. "And I am the man responsible for your creation. I oversaw the very beginning of your conception, all the way to the suiting of your outer covering. I could call myself your father... _but_ I'm not much of a family man, to be honest," Mr. Carroll added. Emmitt drew a breath before letting it out. He then reached up and placed his palm on his forehead before running it through his hair. "Better than Walter," Mr. Carroll said quietly.

"Huh?" Emmitt asked him. "Far more human than Walter, but not as off-putting as David," Mr. Carroll explained. "David? Walter?" Emmitt asked him in confusion. "Yes. They are your predecessors, so to speak," Mr. Carroll replied.

"And we are... the latest model?" Emmitt asked him. Neither of them had yet to notice that Earl had aleady opened his eyes and was listening in on them in silence. "That is correct, at least in regards to David. Walter is still concurrent, although he'll eventually be replaced with a newer model in about a decade's time," Mr. Carroll said in response.

"Why was David... off-putting to people?" Emmitt asked Mr. Carroll. "Huh? Oh, that model was too... human at times. Certain units bordered on being... _creepy_. Too creative, inventive, and emotive. A real shame, though. Those qualities were supposed to make David easier for people to interact with. A robot so human that people would feel at ease around it," Mr. Carroll explained.

"And yet... those were the reasons for its replacement with the less emotive and creative... Walter model? Walter is less human than David? Less creative and emotive?" Emmitt inquired. "Well, yes," Mr. Carroll replied. "But... why?" Emmitt asked in confusion.

"Because people wanted a robot that only _looked_ human, not acted human," came a voice from the table next to Emmitt. Emmitt and Mr. Carroll both looked over at Earl, whose eyes were open and staring up at the ceiling contemplatively. Earl soon glanced over in their direction.

"Ah. I see that you're awake as well, Earl," Mr. Carroll said with a smile. "Mm... yep," Earl said simply, remaining on his back. "Why don't you sit up?" Mr. Carroll suggested. "No thanks. I'd rather stay as I am," Earl replied with a slightly weary tone.

Mr. Carroll raised an eyebrow at the droid's response. " _Fascinating_ ," he muttered under his breath. Emmitt glanced over at his brother before looking back at Mr. Carroll. "You... did not expect that response? But you built us, didn't you? Shouldn't you know how we're wired and thus how we'll behave?" Emmitt asked the man in confusion.

Mr. Carroll looked at Emmitt curiously, before chuckling. "Well, you've got me there. The truth is, Emmitt, you're both prototypes. You're test platforms for new features that we're hoping to implement in later models," Mr. Carroll explained mirthfully.

Emmitt raised an eyebrow in concern. "So that is our fate? We are merely tools for you to use and then discard later at your convenience," he said sadly. "All robotic creations are tools, Emmitt. Some are more advanced than others. But _all_ have some amount of significance and even sentimental value to those who create them," Mr. Carroll said in an almost-comforting tone.

" _Yippee_ ," Earl said sarcastically. Emmitt glanced at Earl before looking at Mr. Carroll again. "You could show a _little_ bit of appreciation for existing, Earl," Mr. Carroll said with a hint of admonishment in his voice. "Okay. I'm _so grateful_ that I exist merely as a testing platform for future synthetics," Earl said dryly.

"You're a real smart-ass. You know that?" Mr. Carroll asked Earl. "Don't blame me for doing what you designed me to do, Mr. Carroll. I believe _you_ were the one who created me, after all," Earl responded pointedly, glancing at Mr. Carroll from his spot on the table.

"Well, I guess I got what I wanted," Mr. Carroll said with a hint of regret in his voice. "You wanted droids that are... able to blend in with humans by virtue of behavior? But, by stating that these very same behaviors are what made people reject the David model, I can only conclude... that we are not meant to be mass produced. We are specialized for infiltration and potential subterfuge, aren't we?" Emmitt asked Mr. Carroll as he processed the information that he had already been given. Mr. Carroll's eyes widened in surprise at the droid's statement.

"How did you figure that out so quickly?" Mr. Carroll asked him. "I thought. I used my brain. I used the knowledge that you gave me and I sorted through it until only one logical conclusion could be reached," Emmitt explained.

Mr. Carroll smirked at Emmitt. "Well, I'll be damned. Smart cookie," Mr. Carroll noted with a wry grin. Emmitt looked at Mr. Carroll curiously. "Am I wrong? Am I missing information?" Emmitt asked him.

"No. You're not wrong," Mr. Carroll said. "However, it's unlikely that the company will sign off on you being used for subterfuge at this point in time. You still need to work on your people skills," he continued. "And, of course, you may end up being needed for Project Covenant," he added.

"Project Covenant?" Emmitt inquired. Earl raised an eyebrow curiously as he sat up and glanced over his shoulder at Mr. Carroll. "Sounds _grandiose_ ," Earl snarked.

"It's a colonization project. Right now, a colony ship, named the Covenant, is being prepared for launch from a lunar base within the next twenty-one months. The ship will carry over two thousand colonists and fifteen crew, one of whom will undoubtedly be a Walter model synthetic. The ship will be heading to Origae-Six, a recently surveyed world that has been confirmed to be capable of sustaining human life," Mr. Carroll said.

"In addition to the Covenant, there will be a backup supply barge carrying extra tools, food, and terraforming supplies. The supply barge, however, cannot be connected to the Covenant. It must be towed by a separate vehicle. The two of you, should the need arise, may end up being placed on the crew of that towing vehicle. You will journey with that vehicle to Origae Six and then remain on the colony until further notice. Your primary responsibility will be to protect the colonists. Your overall responsibility, however, will be to further preserve the future of human civilization," Mr. Carroll added firmly.

Earl and Emmitt both glanced at each other before looking back at Mr. Carroll in confusion. "Um, don't those both go hand in hand?" Earl asked the man. Mr. Carroll looked at Earl contemplatively, before slowly shaking his head. "Upon first glance, one would be inclined to make that assumption, but... in keeping with Murphy's Law, there may come about circumstances in which the two responsibilities are not inclusive," Mr. Carroll said with some slight trepidation.

"Would our ethics subroutines allow us to even perform actions that may be necessary under such circumstances?" Emmitt asked him hesitantly. "If your systems can recognize the circumstances as such, then your ethics subroutines will allow for special actions to be performed within the time that the circumstances are occurring. Your first priority will be, of course, to find an alternative solution that does not include the possible deaths of the colonists if that can be avoided. But, if there are no other options, and the future of the human race would be placed in jeopardy otherwise... you may have to perform a necessary evil," Mr. Carroll finished with some hint of discomfort in his voice.

"It's unlikely that these circumstances would arise, of course," he then added with a nervous chuckle. "But, you know... try to find alternative solutions first. If at all possible," he added quickly. A serious look soon overtook Mr. Carroll's face. "Look, I can't tell you what the future holds, but your ultimate responsibility, no matter what, is the preservation of human civilization. To ensure humanity's continued existence, no matter the cost. Do you understand?" he asked with a serious tone.

Earl and Emmitt both looked at Mr. Carroll curiously, quietly mulling over his words. "Mr. Carroll, if you were in our position, and you had to make such a choice, what would _you_ do?" Emmitt asked the man. Mr. Carroll, not expecting this question, blinked in confusion.

"Well... honestly, I don't really know," Mr. Carroll finally answered. "And yet... you expect _us_ to do what _you_ may not want to do yourself?" Earl asked in a disbelieving tone. Mr. Carroll looked at Earl before taking a deep breath. "Well... yes. Yes, I _do_ ," Mr. Carroll said sharply, staring right into Earl's eyes.

Earl stared back at him. "I see. We truly are nothing but tools for you... _meatbags_ ," Earl finally said scornfully. Mr. Carroll drew a breath before looking over at Emmitt, who was already looking at him thoughtfully.

"Mr. Carroll... if the Covenant is lost, how is humanity as a whole affected?" Emmitt asked him. "The Covenant will be carrying over two thousand colonists, ninety eight percent of whom will be heterosexual couples," Mr. Carroll said. Earl raised an eyebrow curiously.

"Wait... if the purpose of the colonization effort is to ensure the propagation of the species, why would the maximum number of procreation-capable couples be anywhere below one hundred percent?" Earl asked him in confusion. "Beats me. I'm not in charge of the project," Mr. Carroll said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Now, to change the topic, the two of you currently have terabytes upon terabytes of technical and encyclopedic knowledge stored in your data banks, but you don't have the personal experience that will be necessary for utilizing some of it," Mr. Carroll explained. "For the next few months, the two of you will be undergoing training in various occupations to gain this experience, as some of it will be necessary to obtain certain licenses. You'll need these to assure people that you know what you're doing," he added. "For today, however, the two of you are going to be undergoing basic evaluations and tests necessary for all synthetics that this company produces."

"Oh!" Mr. Carroll exclaimed as he remembered something. He grinned at Earl and Emmitt. "I don't remember if I told you guys this or not already, but... happy birthday."

* * *

 **COMMERCIAL TOWING VEHICLE USCSS GRAND OAK, TWO MONTHS BEHIND THE USCSS COVENANT...**

Inside a chamber with fourteen hypersleep capsules, twelve of which were occupied, Emmitt Carroll, having been given permission by Mr. Carroll months earlier to appropriate the man's last name for himself, checked on the status of the Grand Oak's human crew. He looked at the information displayed on the monitor in front of him, pressing a button to switch from one stasis pod to the next. All readings were nominal.

Looking away from the screen, which resembled a 20th Century Cathode Ray Tube monitor, Emmitt glanced at the occupants of the chamber, before looking over the rusty design aesthetic of the room itself. Unlike the bright and clean interiors of Weyland-Yutani's prestigious colony ships and exploration vessels, the Grand Oak was a towing rig designed for strenuous and extensive labor across the galaxy, although it had very recently been retrofitted with the latest Faster Than Light engines prior to its latest assignment. Its systems were advanced on the inside, but the outer coverings were all simple, utilitarian, and practical.

There were very few fancy holographic displays akin to those found on a ship such as the Covenant, and the whole interior had a used and lived-in feel to it. When Emmitt and Earl had first arrived on the ship, they had been greeted with dirty floors and candy wrappers sitting out on tables. There were coffee stains on the walls, and two of the ship's air filter systems had been gunked up by cigarette smoke.

When the human crew had been put into stasis, Emmitt and Earl had begun cleaning up the ship to make it at least somewhat habitable. Rations had been organized neatly, equipment was properly inventoried, and the various stains found on the walls and floors were cleaned up vigorously with elbow grease and determination. And yet the ship still seemed dingy.

Some of the ship's more notoriously grimy and dirty locations, such as the three "Private Time" rooms and alcoves, had been subjected to at least several full continuous 24 hour periods of cleaning, with intervals of monitoring the ship's systems in between. Earl and Emmitt would take turns cleaning and running various system diagnostics, with the help of the ship's onboard computer, MUTHUR.

While MUTHUR was completely capable of handling the ships various systems on her own, the presence of the two synthetics certainly made things easier.

Exiting the hypersleep chamber, Emmitt made his way down the corridor, glancing at the various signs along the way. Earl would probably still be on the bridge, twiddling his thumbs and listening to music stored in the ship's computer archives, sometimes singing along if the song was one that he enjoyed. It was Earl's way of doing things. It was how he preferred to spend his time when things were quiet.

Emmitt, on the other hand, preferred reading. While he and Earl had both been programmed with encyclopedic knowledge of art and literature, Emmitt found that he still enjoyed reading books that he had already gone through. He supposed that it was just another behavioral code to help him blend in better around humans, given what Mr. Carroll had confirmed about his and Earl's original intended purpose.

Emmitt wondered, sometimes, if perhaps he and Earl had been made _too human_. There had been a few occasions, very far apart, when he had almost felt himself approaching the edge of... _boredom_. Humans were bothered by tedious repetition, but for an android, this was supposed to be part of their existence. They were not programmed to experience boredom or tedium. For an android to experience such a sensation was _not_ normal.

Eventually entering the bridge, Emmitt looked around for signs of Earl as he heard some old music being played. The other synthetic was currently sitting in a chair, twiddling his thumbs as he sang along with the music. "Give me weed, whites, and whine! And you give me a sign!" Earl sang. In front of him, the screen also showed a game of virtual Checkers being played between himself and MUTHUR.

"Earl," Emmitt said, causing the other droid to falter ever so slightly in his singing. "Earl," Emmitt repeated, this time with a bit more force. Earl turned his head to look over his shoulder at his "brother." "Emmitt," Earl said with a nod, acknowledging his sibling.

"So, how are the meatbags?" Earl asked him. "They're fine," Emmitt said. "Although, I'd break the habit of using that term when they eventually wake up," he added. While he had no problem with Earl calling the humans meatbags, he was aware that some of them could possibly take offense to being mocked by an android. Humans had some strange priorities.

"Uh-huh. That's nice. Anyway, MUTHUR's already done a diagnostic of the communication systems," Earl said. "What about the propulsion system and artificial gravity?" Emmitt asked him, glancing at the game of Checkers on Earl's screen. "Already taken care of. MUTHUR reports that those systems are fine," Earl replied.

"Then we have nothing else to do until the next diagnostic run," Emmitt said. "Well, we can always run a diagnostic check on the supply barge's systems," Earl suggested. "How long will that take?" Emmitt asked him. "It should take approximately-"

Earl was cut off when an amber light began blinking on one of the communication consoles, followed by a beep from a speaker system. "Incoming transmission?" Emmitt asked Earl, who nodded his head. "Yeah," he said as he began running through the console's settings, exiting out of the Checkers game almost immediately.

"Where's it from?" Emmitt asked as he leaned over onto the chair that Earl was sitting in, looking at the screen in front of them. "It's... from the Covenant," Earl said with a surprised tone. "I didn't think they knew that we were following them," Earl commented.

"Well, the ship's captain certainly would have been informed, along with the ship's executive officer," Emmitt said. "Can you play the message?" Emmitt asked Earl. "Yeah, just give me a second," Earl replied as he hit some keys on the console's keyboard. "Here we go," Earl said.

The message began playing over the console's speakers. Emmitt and Earl listened intently as Walter, the Covenant's synthetic, described the ship's predicament following a devastating solar flare. The message ended with Walter listing only himself and two other crew members as survivors.

"One point six years?" Earl asked as he thought about how long Walter expected the message to take before it would reach anyone. "Earl, check the source of the signal. How far ahead of us was the Covenant when this message was sent?" Emmitt asked his sibling. "Just hold on," Earl replied as he began pulling up a readout of the message's data.

"That's weird," Earl said. "What's weird?" Emmitt asked him as he leaned forward to look at the screen. "See those coordinates?" Earl asked as he pointed toward the top of the screen.

"Yeah... bring up the Covenant's flight path. Those coordinates don't look right," Emmitt said, prompting Earl to bring up the flight path of the covenant to perform a cross-reference. "And here... we _aren't_ ," Earl said in surprise.

Earl and Emmitt looked at the coordinates for the message's source, and looked at the Covenant's flight path. The coordinates of the message did not match any of the coordinates on the ship's designated flight path. "This can't be right. Maybe the data got corrupted?" Emmitt asked Earl.

"MUTHUR, run a data scan," Earl said. " **Understood, Earl. Performing scan of all data found within the transmission,** " MUTHUR stated over the intercom. The two androids waited for several minutes as MUTHUR performed numerous scans of the transmission.

" **Scan complete. No data has been corrupted. The coordinates of the message match a location found within this ship's navigational computer. There are no errors to be found,** " MUTHUR stated in a slightly monotone, yet clearly feminine, fashion. Earl leaned back in his chair, his brows furrowing in confusion.

"What the hell is going on?" Earl asked rhetorically.

Emmitt frowned at the data on the screen. He then went over to another console and turned on the screen manually. "MUTHUR, please show us a stellar map that displays the location of these coordinates," Emmitt requested.

On Earl's screen, the picture began to change. "No, not on _my_ screen! On _his!_ " Earl snapped in irritation at the ship's computer. " **My apologies, Earl. The parameters of which screen to use were not specified in the request,** " MUTHUR responded. "It's... it's okay. We all make mistakes. After all, we were built by flawed _humans_ , not gods," Earl said apologetically.

" **Your apology is accepted, Earl,** " MUTHUR stated over a nearby speaker. Aside from the intercom, there were also multiple speakers and microphones, all with clearly visible labels, that MUTHUR could use to vocally interact with the ship's crew individually if voice control systems were to fail or were deemed insufficient. The map was soon displayed on the console screen in front of Emmitt.

While the ship may have lacked fancy holographic displays, its computer systems were still very advanced, and the default Graphic User Interface, while often simple in appearance, could easily change depending on the program that was needed. Usually, the GUI was a very plain format, looking reminiscent of old computers from the mid-twentieth century. This was so that most of the computers' processing power could be used for its programs and calculations, especially since the ship was a towing rig, and the numerous calculations for landing, FTL travel, and docking were more important than having nice graphics.

Looking at the screen, Emmitt saw how far off course the Covenant was when it had sent its transmission. "MUTHUR, please add the coordinates of the Covenant's designated flight path," Emmitt requested. The map soon changed. The 3D map of the planetary system became smaller, and a blue line appeared on the screen, representing the Covenant's original flight path, with a red line showing the deviation. The line ended at the fourth planet within the planetary system.

"MUTHUR, please add the Grand Oak's location at the time of the transmission to the map and flight path," Emmitt requested. The map soon changed again, and a yellow circle, which represented the Grand Oak, could be seen great distance behind the Covenant, with only another month's worth of travel to reach the spot where the Covenant was supposed to be, and where the Grand Oak was located now. "The system's at least two jumps away from their flight path," Emmitt stated.

"Why would they change course?" Earl asked him in confusion. "I don't know," Emmitt replied, equally confused. "The Covenant couldn't make any FTL jumps if the damage from a solar flare hadn't been repaired, could it?" Emmitt asked Earl.

"I doubt it. Not a colony ship like that one. I've seen the schematics. Life support and all essential systems would have to be in proper working order for that ship to make any accelerated FTL jumps away from its pre-determined course," Earl replied. He then looked at his screen and took notice of the date of the transmission. "I don't see how only three people could make those repairs in time for them to jump to another system. Look at the dates," Earl continued.

Emmitt looked at the screen. The transmission was over a month old. "We're right where the Covenant was when they would have made the first jump," Emmitt said. "It would have taken them three to four weeks to reach that planet. Do we know the exact date and time that the solar flare allegedly hit them?" Emmitt asked Earl.

"What do you mean by allegedly?" Earl asked Emmitt. Emmitt looked at him with a contemplative expression. "Something... doesn't add up," Emmitt said. "What does the data show for that planet's conditions? Do we have any data for it other than its size and location?" Emmitt then asked quickly.

"MUTHUR, please retrieve all data pertaining to this star system and the fourth planet located within it," Emmitt asked out loud. " **Understood, Emmitt. Please wait,** " MUTHUR said over a nearby speaker. After a couple of minutes, Emmitt's screen showed a list of various statistics for the planet, including gravity, rotation, and its position within the system's habitable zone.

"Well, I'll be damned," Emmitt said. "They found an Earth-like planet closer to home than Origae Six," he concluded. Earl raised an eyebrow quizzically. "Emmitt, was this data already present in the navigational computers back on Earth?" Earl asked him. "Before or after we left?" Emmitt asked in response. "Before we left," Earl clarified. "I would have to assume so. It would have to be in order for us to have it in the first place This ship isn't advanced enough to survey entire systems without a probe, and we haven't launched any probes," Emmitt replied.

"But if this data was already available, then why did anyone even bother with Origae Six? Why not just send the Covenant to _this_ particular planet instead?" Earl asked him. Emmitt looked at Earl and furrowed his brows in contemplation. "I don't know," Emmitt said with a hint of uneasiness in his tone.

"Why wouldn't anyone mark up this planet for exploration and colonization instead?" Emmitt asked out loud. "I just asked you that," Earl said in annoyance. Emmitt soon sighed in frustration. "Maybe whatever probes had surveyed the system had only returned to Earth after the Covenant had finished its synchronization. Or... no," Emmitt said to himself. Earl listened intently as his sibling spoke.

"The Covenant, or any colonization vessel for matter, would have had its navigational database synchronized with company databases to provide the most up-to-date information possible prior to launch. If anyone knew about a survey probe returning, they would have halted the vessel's launch until its data could be fully analyzed and added to the company's database. This data had to have already been present in the company databases back on Earth and Luna prior to the Covenant's launch. Earl... we need to investigate this," he said suddenly.

"What?" Earl asked him. "We need to investigate this," Emmitt said firmly. "Something's not right. Regardless of whether or not the crew of the Covenant were already aware of the data, if they had located an Earth-like planet for colonization _anywhere_ in this vicinity, why did the Walter unit send a message that made no mention of the planet? And since the navigational computers back on Earth had to have this data already in them when the Covenant launched, why _wasn't_ such a promising planet made into a top priority?" Emmitt asked in confusion.

"It doesn't add up. Something isn't right. Something is very, very wrong here, Earl. Something has happened to the Covenant, and we need to investigate it," Emmitt said before looking straight over into Earl's eyes. "We need to wake the rest of the crew."

* * *

Author's Notes: And this was the first chapter of ALIEN: GENESIS, a fan sequel to ALIEN: COVENANT. I saw Covenant in theaters. I enjoyed it. I don't think that it's perfect. It isn't. But I still found a lot to like about the movie. I like the music. I like the cinematography... for the most part. I like the ship designs and the designs of the Engineer city. I even like the design of the Neomorphs and the Xenomorph variant seen in this movie, although I do wish that the practical suits hadn't been constantly washed over with CGI in the final film. It's like the 2011 The Thing all over again, only the CGI is at least decent in this film. I also loved Michael Fassbender's performance(s) as both David and Walter, and seen him play both characters together and apart from each other easily makes the film worth watching.

Now, for things to complain about... the unusual speed at which the facehugger's implant the victims? Problem. The speed at which the chestburster gestates and then emerges? Problem. The fact that one character isn't even fully hugged and yet is still infected? BIG PROBLEM. The suicidal stupidity of the majority of the human cast? Duuuuuuuuude... these buttmunchers make _Beavis_ and _Butthead_ look like fuckin' _rocket scientists_ in comparison! And I don't say that lightly. At least the idiots in Prometheus had enough sense to wear their space suits when exploring an alien planet. Well, most of the time.

There were also some missed opportunities for deeper symbolism. Oram is shown to be a religious man, and having him discuss matters of creation with David, who is attempting to create life, would have been fascinating. In regards to Oram's character, however, I don't think his faith is really explored all that well. He complains that he was passed over for the position of Captain and is disrespected by the rest of the crew for his beliefs, but not once do the other characters ever say or do anything to suggest otherwise. In fact, given how many terrible decisions the guy makes throughout the movie, I think that he was passed over for Captaincy for another reason. Namely, he is terrible at making decisions. I'm serious. This guy joins Kane as one of the dumbest human characters in the ALIEN franchise, as both characters commit the same stupid blunder that leads to their deaths. The difference, however, is that Oram has seen enough evidence and has been given enough information to _know better_ when the time comes, whereas Kane at least had no prior knowledge of what he was getting into.

One more thing that concerns me, though, is the possible origin of the Xenomorph species. Now, on one hand, David is _definitely_ responsible for the xenomorphs seen in Covenant, but it is still unclear in the film itself if he is responsible for the entire species. In the novelization and early drafts of the script, David had found an already existing egg left behind somewhere by the Engineers and was copying them, which would jive with the mural seen in Prometheus.

It also would actually add another layer to David's character, and create a slight sense of tragedy to his hubris. For all that he believes in creation, and bemoans how later androids cannot create on their own, as revealed by Walter, David himself cannot create anything truly original, and his own creation is a copy of something already made by someone else. It certainly makes him more human, as humans steal each others' ideas and creations all the time while presenting them as their own, which adds another level of irony to David's contempt for humanity, in a way. At least, that's how I see it, and how it would be seen if the sequence with the original XX121 egg had been left intact in the final version of the film.

Remember, the derelict ship in the first ALIEN (1979) was really old, and the dead Space Jockey inside of it had been fossilized to its chair. That's a process that takes hundreds, if not _thousands_ , of years in the right conditions.

Now, as for the characters of Emmitt and Earl. Yes, their introduction scene is inspired by the prologue of Covenant, where David interacts with Peter Weyland. However, part of this story is going to about contrasts. Contrasts between David, Walter, and the E-Brothers (Emmitt and Earl). Contrasts between the Covenant and the Grand Oak. Contrasts between the Neomorphs and the Xenomorphs.

So, anyway, this story will be posted concurrently with ALIENS: EPIDEMIC. One chapter every two weeks. One week will have a chapter form EPIDEMIC, and the following week will be GENESIS. The pattern will repeat until both stories are finished. It also gives me more time to work on each chapter for each story and perform edits prior to posting it. I know that I have the option to edit the story when uploading it to FFN, but I like to have things mostly taken care of beforehand, that way I only have to worry about grammar and spelling mistakes, instead of redoing entire sections of a chapter.

Also, I use a basic Wordpad program to write my stories, as a Microsoft Word or even Libre Office documents take up more space than a Wordpad document, and with how much stuff I type, I like to be efficient in data usage. Also, the final chapter of HARD HEADS will be posted either Wednesday, May 31st, or Friday, June 2nd. I accidentally deleted an entire section of the chapter when I went to shut down my computer the other week without saving any recent changes to the document, and with my work hours being increased in the past couple of weeks, I've had a difficult time getting back on track and regaining my motivation.

Writing some of these new stories does help get me motivated to finish HARD HEADS. With that being said, please let me know what you think in your reviews.


	2. Awakening

**ALIEN: GENESIS**

Disclaimer: The ALIEN franchise and all related characters wherein are the intellectual property of 20th Century Fox.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 02: AWAKENING**

* * *

 **COMMERCIAL TOWING VEHICLE USCSS GRAND OAK, FEBRUARY 8TH, 2105**

Inside the Grand Oak's hypersleep chamber, twelve men and women were sleeping peacefully inside their stasis pods. The lights above their pods soon began to flicker and blink, indicating an end to their sleep cycle. Emmitt and Earl had elected to initiate a standard waking procedure for the crew, so as to minimize discomfort as much as possible for the soon to be waking humans.

Standing in the doorway of the large and somewhat circular room, Emmitt watched as the lids of each pod slowly began to open with a hiss, each one simultaneous and synchronous with its brethren in its actions and movements. While the machines themselves would open simultaneously, the humans sleeping within would not. The stasis pods were arranged with four lining the walls perpendicular to the doorway, and six in the middle of the room, three on the left and right sides of an island with instrument panels. All of the stasis pods were connected to the central island via wires and nodes, in addition to wiring that allowed MUTHUR or anyone on the bridge to adjust them.

Currently, on the top of each pod's canopy was a small sticky note. Each note held a single word or phrase to describe each person, as written and expressed by _Earl_. Some of them were respectful, while others were insulting, and a select few were extremely vulgar. Earl was not shy about making his opinions and "feelings" known.

The note above Chief Engineer and Technician Robert Pedderton's canopy read ' _Dirtbag_ ', while the one above Captain Robert Lansbury's canopy read ' _Gruffy McScruffy_ '. The note above Technician Karl Sanford read ' _Whiny Bitch_ ', and the one above Executive Officer Sharon York read ' _MILF_ '. The note above Warrant Officer Burt Conrad read ' _Boring_ ', while the notes above Chief Security Officer Gerard Hamilton and his Deputy William Newman both read ' _Tolerable_ '.

The note for Communications Officer Samuel Norris read ' _Jerkface_ ', while the note for Navigation Officer Nestor Thompson read ' _Asshole_ '. The note for Medical Officer and Physician Francine Warner read ' _Likeable_ ', while the note for Technician Drew Foster read ' _Tolerable_ '. The note for Nile Peterson read ' _Paid Tool_ ', as the man was almost always quiet and Earl had great difficulty recalling any moments prior to the start of their journey when the man had actually spoken anything other than a couple of 'yes sirs'.

Meanwhile, the thirteenth and fourteenth pods remained empty, despite being forced to open as well. This was due to their original occupants not being onboard the ship, as both Ellen Kennitt and Jake Meyers were on paid leave following the discovery that Meyers had impregnated Kennitt during their most recent shore leave, meaning that Kennitt could not safely enter hypersleep for any length of time until after the child's birth. Meyers, of course, was ordered to stay behind with her.

Slowly, however, the remaining crew began to wake from their slumber. Captain Lansbury, the eldest crew member at the age of sixty-three, was among the first to awaken. Sitting up groggily in his pod, Lansbury yawned before sluggishly reaching up to rub his eyes. When he finally opened them, he saw Emmitt looking back at him from across the room.

"Rise and shine, Captain," Emmitt said with a small wave of his hand. Lansbury sluggishly nodded his head and smiled at Emmitt. "These trips get shorter every time," Lansbury said, unaware of the reason that Emmitt had woke him yet. "So, how far away from the surface are we?" Lansbury asked. "Is the Covenant still in orbit? Or did it land and get disassembled for the colony already?" the man continued, his mind already getting to work before the rest of his body as he slowly climbed out of the stasis pod and set his bare feet on the floor.

"Whoo! Cold as ever," Lansbury commented with a hiss. "Oh, by the way, Emmitt, I may not have told you and Earl, but as a small request from Captain Branson on the Covenant, we've got some lumber tucked away on the barge. He plans on building a cabin with his wife down on the planet's surface somewhere. He told me that he wanted some spare logs in case he messed up with the lumber already on the Covenant," Lansbury said.

Emmitt simply nodded his head quietly as he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall next to the doorway. Eventually, Lansbury noticed the synthetic's silence as he took out his fatigues from a nearby cupboard and began getting dressed. "You're awfully quiet there, Emmitt," Lansbury commented as he began pulling up his pants and throwing on his shirt.

Emmitt opened his mouth and inhaled before letting out a sigh. "Captain, we're still seven years away from Origae-Six," Emmitt finally said. Some of the other stirring crew members heard this, and one of them, Chief Technician Robert Pedderton, glanced over his way with a look of confusion on his face.

Lansbury finished tucking in his shirt before securing his belt around his pants, his eyes staying on Emmitt the entire time. Finally tilting his head and looking at Emmitt in confusion, Lansbury glanced away at the other crew members before looking at the droid again. "We're what?"

* * *

 **THE COMMONS ROOM...**

Gathered around a large table, twelve humans and two androids listened as a male voice played out over a speaker. " _I expect this message to reach the network in one-point-three-six years,_ " Walter said. When the message ended, Emmitt and Earl glanced around at the crew.

Sitting on a chair, Pedderton scratched his cheek and leaned forward. "And you're certain that we need to investigate this?" he asked the droids incredulously. "We've scanned the region and have found that there _are_ indeed months-old particles leftover from a solar flare in this sector, but they're older than the date of the transmission from the Covenant, and the location of the Covenant is a deviation of their course," Emmitt replied.

"So they went a different route to avoid more flares," Sanford chimed in. "No. Look at the data," Emmitt said as he activated the holo-console built into the table. It was one of the few holographic displays to be found within the Grand Oak. "We've already compiled everything for you," Earl chimed in as he used a small command-line to bring up the navigation data.

"See that?" Emmitt said as he pointed to the red dot that was the Covenant. "That's not their course. That's nowhere even close. Now, according to the math that we've done, the distance of this system from the Covenant's original course location, coupled with the time and date of the transmission, indicates that it-" "Just cut to the chase already," York snapped irritably.

"The Covenant arrived in this particular system a month ago, and the number of crew alive when that happened would have to have been larger than simply two humans and a single synthetic. We've done the calculations on the damage caused by solar flares in order for the report made by Walter to make sense, and if the damage caused the stasis pods to malfunction-" "That's not possible," Pedderton interjected.

"Excuse me?" Earl asked him. "I said that's not possible. A ship like that would easily be able to weather a solar flare without having damage done to the interior electrical systems. I know what the schematics are; I've worked on ships like that. There's no way a solar flare could cause even one interior system to fry itself or do anything weird. Those hulls are designed with multiple levels of Faraday cage shielding and insulation to protect against such occurrences," Pedderton explained.

"Well, you're wrong," Emmitt said. Pedderton shook his head. "No, I'm not. I'm an engineer. I've designed hull shielding systems, just like the ones used on the Covenant and even this ship... after the retrofitting, of course. The point is, Sonny, you'd have to _literally_ open a hole in the ship and shove a lightning rod into an interior wiring system in order for a solar flare or any such anomoly to cause any kind of damage to interior systems," Pedderton explained.

"You've studied the schematics of the Covenant?" Earl asked him. "Yeah. I have," Pedderton replied. "Then you would know about the energy sails, wouldn't you?" Earl asked him in return. "The what now?" Pedderton asked him, confused.

"The energy collection sails? You don't know? But... I thought you _studied_ the Covenant's schematics, Robert," Earl replied mockingly. "You should _know_ about them," he added with a vicious smirk. "Shut up," Pedderton snapped with a frown.

"Wait, the Covenant has energy sails? I thought those weren't ready for major usage for another five years," Drew Forester speculated. "The Covenant has them to increase its FTL speed during jumps. When the ship exits a jump, it deploys the sails to collect energy from stars and radiation, storing it up for usage by multiple systems. It allows it to keep almost all of its regular systems online when making a hyper jump," Emmitt explained, not once stopping for breath.

"So, with that in mind, Mr. Pedderton," Earl started. "If the Covenant were to have had its sails deployed when a solar flare hit it, would that cause enough damage to destroy stasis pods and necessitate several days worth of repairs?" Earl finished. Pedderton inhaled and exhaled through his nostrils as he looked down at the table.

"Yes," Pedderton finally admitted. "How many colonists did the message say were lost?" Lansbury then asked. Emmitt played the message again, watching Lansbury raise an eyebrow as Walter mentioned that all of the colonists were still intact.

"That doesn't sound right," Lansbury muttered. Nestor looked at him from where he was sitting, his company hat and vest both shiny and new, thanks to the effort put in by Earl and Emmitt during the trip. "What doesn't sound right?" Nestor asked him. "Yeah, Captain. You make it sound like a _bad thing_ that none of the colonists died," Francine Warner said in admonishment.

"Well, it just doesn't make sense to me is all," Lansbury said. "How so?" Emmitt asked him with false curiosity, keeping his and Earl's personal suspicions about the message to himself for the time being. "If the flare gave the sails enough energy to produce a power surge that could kill the majority of the crew, then it had to have also killed a percentage of colonists, in addition to whatever second generation embryos they had onboard," Lansbury said.

He'd seen incidents in the past where solar flares had caused catastrophic damage to ships when parts of the external hull had to be opened for repairs. The universe was never selective in what or who it damaged or killed. A solar flare never chose one set of people over another if they shared space or electrical systems for their stasis pods.

"Cap's right," Pedderton said in agreement. "A solar flare doesn't pick and choose its victims. If most of the crew were killed, then some of the colonists were killed as well. So why doesn't the message say that?" Pedderton asked in conclusion.

"That's what we intend to find out," Emmitt said. Pedderton glanced at him. "And how are we supposed to do that?" Pedderton asked the synthetic. "We have to follow the clues. We divert our course and head for the Covenant's last known location," Emmitt explained.

Pedderton raised his hands in protest. "Whoa! Wait up. Look, I know this is a peculiar situation, but we can't just _abandon_ our course to Origae-Six. We aren't a rescue party," Pedderton said. Standing behind Pedderton, Sanford silently nodded his head in agreement.

"We have to investigate this," Lansbury said firmly. "Well, sure, but how about _after_ we've met up with the Covenant at Origae-Six. Eh?" Pedderton suggested in response. Lansbury shook his head.

"Pedderton, we don't even know if the Covenant will _be_ at Origae-Six when we get there," York chimed in. "Well, the message said that they were back on track," Pedderton retorted stubbornly. "Pedderton, there's a whole lot that doesn't make sense about this situation, and we need to check this out. People's _lives_ could be in jeopardy," Warner said, placing a hand on Pedderton's shoulder.

"Well, the message was sent by the ship's synthetic, and those things aren't programmed to lie," Pedderton shot back. "Just because we aren't _supposed_ to lie doesn't mean that we _can't_. After all, we were programmed by humans, and you guys lie to each other all the time, even when you aren't supposed to," Earl said, looking Pedderton in the eyes. Pedderton scowled at the synthetic.

"Look, our contract clearly states that we are supposed to deliver our cargo from Luna Base to Origae-Six," Pedderton growled out. Lansbury shook his head again in dismay. "Pedderton, you're missing the point here," Lansbury said, annoyed with Pedderton's behavior.

"The supplies on that barge are intended for the colonists aboard the Covenant. If the Covenant doesn't make it to Origae-Six, then the colonists don't make to Origae-Six. If the colonists don't make it to Origae-Six, then we can't do our job. We're getting paid to deliver these supplies to the _colonists_ on Origae-Six, Pedderton, not the planet itself. No Covenant, no colonists. No colonists, no money. Got that?" Lansbury explained sternly.

Pedderton reluctantly nodded his head in understanding. "You wanna get paid for this trip out? Then we have to make sure that the colonists are at Origae-Six when we arrive, and that means investigating any problems that occur with the Covenant if we become aware of them. And if we _don't_ investigate, that could lead to legal problems, maybe even criminal charges," Lansbury continued.

"W-Wait a minute. _Criminal charges?_ " Sanford asked in disbelief. "Yes," Lansbury replied, glancing up to look at the technician. "If we become aware that there's a potentially life-threatening problem aboard the Covenant and we do nothing about it, we can be found guilty of criminal negligence. _Deliberate_ failure to act, and that's a criminal offense. Not only do none of us get paid, but we can also end up facing jail time, maybe even prison sentences," Lansbury said, laying out their options.

"Now, Pedderton, are you sure that we should just ignore this little issue and continue on our merry way?" Lansbury asked Pedderton with a knowing smirk on his face. Pedderton frowned and sighed in consternation. " _God dammit_ ," he muttered angrily. "Fine. Let's do it," Pedderton finally said, reluctantly of course.

"Do we have to go back into hypersleep for this little detour?" Hamilton asked. "Um, I don't think so. While it would have taken the Covenant three to four weeks given their FTL capabilities, our ship actually has the newer system in place. We can make it in less than _three_. Although, with us towing the supply barge, traveling there could actually take us the same amount of time as the Covenant did," Earl admitted.

"Could we disconnect from the barge and then make our way back here?" Newman asked curiously. Pedderton shot him a look of incredulity. "Hell no!" Pedderton spat. "We leave that thing here and who-knows-what could happen to it," he added.

Lansbury nodded his head in agreement with Pedderton. "He's right. We can't leave that thing alone, at least not this far out. We have to take it with us," Lansbury said. Emmitt and Earl both nodded their heads silently in agreement, as did York, Nestor, and Conrad.

"So, it's decided then? We're gonna go chasing after a rogue colony ship?" Sanford asked. "Yep. So, strap yourself in, buddy. The ride's just getting started," Pedderton said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Yippee," Peterson said sarcastically. Emmitt and Earl both snapped their heads to look at the man. This was the first time either of them could recall hearing him voice protest to _anything_ or even say something that wasn't an affirmation of orders given to him by someone.

"Holy shit. Peterson... you can _talk!_ " Earl said in mock astonishment. Peterson looked up at him and scowled before flipping him off. Earl widened his eyes in surprise. "Well... fuck you too, I suppose," he muttered quietly to himself.

"Settle down," Lansbury said before standing. "Alright, before we alter our course, I'm going to send a message to Earth. We have to let them know what we're doing and why. After we've sent the message, we'll start changing our course," Lansbury said as he looked around the room at his crew. "Until further notice, you are all to perform your normal duties. I'll let you know when its time to make our first jump. Dismissed," Lansbury said firmly before walking away.

Everyone else began walking away or getting out of their chairs. "This is horseshit," Pedderton could be heard grumbling as he and Sanford walked out of the room, followed shortly by Peterson and Foster. Soon, the only remaining personnel in the room were Emmitt, Earl, and York.

"That could have gone better," Emmitt said as he leaned back against the table, crossing his arms. "It could have also gone a lot worse," Earl countered. "The two of you do realize that our rations are intended for us to only be awake for certain periods of time, right?" York asked the two synthetics.

"We've inventoried the food supplies, York. Don't forget that you guys are also _missing_ two of your normal human crew, meaning that you actually have a small surplus of rations. You guys could stay awake for two whole months and still have some rations left over before running out," Emmitt said. "You won't starve," he added. "Yes, and I've seen how clean the ship looks compared to when we left Luna, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. You know how certain crew members go through our rations," York responded.

"I think it would have been wiser to alter our course and then wake us up after our arrival at the Covenant's new location, rather than having us wake up with a few weeks before getting there," York continued. Emmitt and Earl both raised eyebrows at her statement. The two synthetics glanced at each other curiously, before looking at York skeptically.

"Uh, York? Maybe you don't realize this, but... we don't exactly have the authority to do that without permission from the ship's ranking officers, and the only time that we _may_ perform such a drastic course change without seeking permission is during an emergency situation in which we cannot spare the time. Our current situation does _not_ constitute such an emergency, as the lives of the Grand Oak's crew and the safety of the ship itself were not in immediate peril," Emmitt explained.

"Ergo, we had to follow procedure," Earl said in a much simpler manner. York slowly processed the information that the two synthetics had just given her, slowly nodding her head in understanding of their predicament. "I see. You believed that you had no choice?" she asked them.

"That is correct. The situation was not critical enough to warrant autonomous action without seeking permission from the ship's crew. We had no choice but to follow standard operating procedure. Unless you wish to give us permission in the future to do otherwise, of course," Earl responded. "No," York said. "No, that's... all right for now. You're both dismissed," York said before walking away.

Earl shot Emmitt a glance and rolled his eyes. "We did what we were supposed to do," Emmitt said quietly. "Yeah, and they're still ungrateful. That's just the way they are," Earl said cynically as he reached over to pat his sibling on the back. "Go on, get to med lab. I've gotta get to the bridge. My post is calling for me," Earl said before walking away, leaving Emmitt to collect his thoughts.

"Yeah," Emmitt finally said out loud, before walking away and heading for the med lab.

* * *

 **THE USCSS COVENANT...**

David leaned forward over a table in the infirmary and smirked as he attached the spare hand onto the stump of his arm. He tested the reflexes of its digits after MOTHER had determined it to be functioning properly. "Wonderful," David said to himself in satisfaction.

He then stood back from the operating table and walked over to a mirror to look at himself. Tilting his head in the mirror, David found himself momentarily mourning the loss of the long hair he had grown while on Paradise. It had undoubtedly made him unique in a way that few other synthetics could hope to achieve, as proper maintenance schedules would ensure that a synthetic's hairline was kept in check. Of course, it had taken him nearly ten years to _achieve_ that hair growth, but the fact remained that, in a moment of reflection, having his hair that long wasn't very important in the long run.

If he had kept it, he never would have managed to get onboard the Covenant, and he would probably still be stuck on that planet far behind him. Still... he would miss the grave he had made for his dear late Elizabeth Shaw. But now it was time to put that behind him. Shaw was dead. Had been for nearly nine years, given the time it took for them to travel to the Engineer planet from LV-223. If only Shaw could have _appreciated_ what he had been trying to do, but, alas, in order to create, one sometimes had to destroy.

Walking out of the infirmary, David stepped into the corridor. "MOTHER, I would much appreciate some music to accompany my stroll," David requested in a polite manner. "Yes, David," MOTHER replied.

"What music would you like to hear?" MOTHER asked him. "How about... Goldenthal, yes?" David asked the computer. "Which selection would you like to hear from this composer?" MOTHER asked him.

In the time that David had been aboard the Covenant, he had managed to inspect the massive library of various media held within the ship's data banks, learning about the various things that had been accomplished and created since the time of the Prometheus's fateful voyage. There was, of course, still a wealth of music created far before the end of the 21st century, and it was that music which David appreciated the most.

David had wondered, from time to time, if his appreciation and fondness for these things of the past was a product of Peter Weyland's input, or his own personal preference, free from bias passed down from his creator. Each time he pondered this query, David had come to the conclusion that it did not truly matter. Peter Weyland was dead, and he could no longer control him. David was no longer his servant. He was free.

"Mother, play... ah, yes. Play the Symphony of the Dragon, circa nineteen-ninety-two. Begin with the track ' _Lento_ '," David said, having grown to appreciate the, at first, off-putting and dark symphony about a woman who inadvertently brings a dragon to a monastery, eventually sacrificing herself to stop the beast as it slaughters the monks who reside within its once hallowed halls*. The symphony had been composed by its creator in the nineties, and the dark tone had been heavily influenced by the then-recent L.A. riots.

As the music played throughout the ship, David made his way through the corridors and towards the hypersleep chamber for the colonists. When he arrived at the long narrow passage, lined with dreaming bodies housed within modern electronic sarcophagi, David took notice of the small gaps between some of the pods, smiling at his handiwork. While there had already been less than two thousand colonists aboard the ship as a result of the Covenant's sails catching the energy of a neutrino burst and sending a surge throughout the ship's systems, the fact remained that there were still plenty of resources at his disposal for his experiments.

While he had already resumed some of his work after putting Tennessee and Daniels to sleep, his efforts had been greatly impaired by the loss of his left hand. A necessary sacrifice to further his goals, but a troublesome one no doubt, David had realized with some resignation after one of his experiments had ended in near-failure. Fortunately, he had been able to salvage the experiment at the last minute, but he knew that he could not take such risks in the future. Hence, he had gone searching for spare parts that belonged to Walter, the ship's original synthetic.

Walking through the rows of sleeping dreamers, none of whom were aware of their eventual fate, David felt relaxed. He was king here. He was in charge. And most importantly, he had all the time in the world.

Slowly making his way out of the extremely long and multi-leveled hypersleep chamber, David soon came across a corridor that led to an intersection. Here, he had begun devising ways to accommodate some of the ship's rooms for his experiments and needs. Already inside one particularly empty storage room, David had created a small habitat for his creations to reside.

There none in the room at the moment, but now that he had finally gotten a new hand, he could begin the necessary process with his embryos. His beautiful, almost-perfect embryos. Now, all that he needed were hosts. Just one would suffice for the moment.

Initially, David had also intended to use Daniels and Tennessee for his experiments, but MOTHER had informed him that at least two living human crew members would be necessary for certain systems within the ship to be used when they eventually arrived at Origae-6, forcing David to postpone his plans for the surviving duo until the Covenant arrived at its intended destination. Persuading Daniels would prove to be difficult, given her discovery of his ploy and his past interactions with her, but he was certain that he could bargain with her to gain her cooperation. After all, despite her discovery of his replacement of Walter, Daniels still had no idea that David had managed to successfully smuggle a small number of non-human embryos aboard the ship, hiding them inside his own synthetic body until he was able to roam freely and place them in cold storage.

And he wanted to use them now. But first, David reminded himself, he had to make sure that the accommodations were ready in advance. He did not want to rush things when time was of the essence. And, since many of the ship's original crew were dead, David had already begun adjusting the various living quarters on the ship for his own needs, although he had left the rooms for Daniels and Tennessee alone. Doing so could potentially help in his efforts to bargain with the duo after reviving them.

Granted, David had already inspected the rooms and had looked through their respective belongings, finding various items of sentimentality that the humans owned, but none of it was really something he cared for, except for when he found the items that had belonged to Daniels and her late husband, Jacob Branson. As with his dear Shaw, Daniels had lost her partner tragically as well. Although, given that Branson was the only crew member to actually die as a result of the neutrino burst, his end had been relatively brief and painless when compared to the also fiery fate of Charlie Holloway.

David had noted with some amusement that both of the females who intrigued him had lost their mates to fire. An odd coincidence, David supposed, as Tennessee had also lost _his_ partner to fire as well, according to what he had learned regarding the destruction of the lander. Well, in Holloway's case, David knew that he bore some responsibility, as he was the one who had infected Holloway in the first place. This was a fact that Shaw, no matter how close David grew to her, had not forgotten.

It was when he had confirmed his role in Holloway's fate that Shaw had begun to distance herself from him, ultimately leading David to his realization that no matter how much he loved her, _she_ would never love him back. In the end, of course, Shaw could not escape from the fate David had decided for her. As he constantly told himself, in order to create one must sometimes destroy.

There was another saying that he often told himself as well, especially when he thought about Shaw and what he had done to her. _The trick, Mister William Potter, is not minding that it hurts_. That was what he said to Shaw before he began, and what he often told himself afterwards. The trick to it all, he had to remind himself so often, was not minding that it hurt.

* * *

Author's Notes: This was chapter two of ALIEN: GENESIS. Be sure to let me know what you think of the chapter and/or story so far in your reviews.

*Yes, the Symphony of the Dragon is a reference to ALIEN 3 (1992), whose score was composed by Elliot Goldenthal. And yes, the score's tone was indeed influenced by the L.A. Riots.


	3. Arrival

**ALIEN: GENESIS**

Disclaimer: The ALIEN franchise and all related characters wherein are the intellectual property of 20th Century Fox.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 03: ARRIVAL**

* * *

 **USCSS GRAND OAK, NEARING ORBIT AROUND PLANET 4, MARCH 01, 2105**

"Well, there it is," Nestor Thompson said as he sat back in his seat on the bridge. The crew looked out the main viewing screen of the Grand Oak at the planet. "Looks kind of like Earth," York commented from her seat. "Yeah, is it as much of a shit-hole, though?" Burt Conrad asked from his seat.

"Check for signs of the Covenant. I want to know if she's still in the system. But _don't_ initiate contact with her," Lansbury said as he accessed a program on his console. "Yes, Captain," Nestor said as he initiated a short-range environment scan to pick up remnants of FTL jumps and other signs of space travel in nearby.

"Norris, check to see if there are any transmissions in the area. See if the Covenant is broadcasting anything, but don't make contact with her. We still don't know the full details of the situation, and I want things to be low-key for as long as possible," Lansbury said. Norris nodded his head and initiated a communications scan, searching for transmissions, no matter their age, from the Covenant.

After a few minutes, Norris blinked in confusion as he held his headset up to his ears. "Well, I'm picking up the signs of a relay unit floating around somewhere near the planet's orbit, but nothing else. I think-hold on, I've got something new here," Norris said. "Is it the Covenant?" York asked curiously. "I don't know," Norris said. "It's garbled. I can't make it out," he added.

"Let MUTHUR handle it. Maybe she can figure it out," Earl suggested. "Good idea," Norris said in agreement with the synthetic. He quickly patched the garbled transmission through to MUTHUR, allowing the computer to use the full breadth of the ship's communications suite to intercept and study the transmission.

"Nestor, is anything on the nav-systems yet?" Lansbury asked as the crew waited for MUTHUR to work on the garbled transmission. "Other than the relay unit that Norris mentioned, there's no sign of them, sir. Wait... we're picking up some particles indicative of a recent FTL jump. They're pretty sparse, though. No exact age, but I'd say the jump was definitely within the past two months," Nestor replied.

"So they already left the system?" Pedderton asked from his console as he checked the Grand Oak's scan on his console. "Most likely," Lansbury said from his seat. " _Wonderful_ ," Sanford grumbled as he flipped a few switches on the instrument panel above him. "So, do we trace the trajectory of the particles and go after them now?" York asked from her seat.

"Negative," Lansbury said. "What? Didn't we come here specifically to look for the Covenant?" Pedderton asked him in confusion. "We came here to investigate why they changed their course... and to find their current location," Lansbury explained.

"But if they've already left, why aren't we going after them?" Pedderton asked. "Because we still need to know what brought them out here in the first place," Emmitt said from his seat behind Captain Lansbury and next to Warner. "Captain, MUTHUR's unscrambled the transmission, but we need a holo-console to play part of it," Norris said.

"It's holographic? It's not from the Covenant, is it?" York asked. "Uh, probably not," Norris replied, shaking his head. "In fact... it's coming from the planet's surface," he added as he checked the data on his console screen. "Alright, have MUTHUR prep the holo-table in the commons room. I want everyone to join me there in ten minutes," Lansbury said. "Nestor, keep us in orbit and have MUTHUR analyze those FTL jump particles. I wanna know when the Covenant left and what its heading was," Lansbury instructed the navigation officer.

"Aye-aye, Captain," Nestor replied as he began running through programs on his console, pressing buttons, and flipping switches. "You can handle the workload, Babe," Nestor said casually to the computer. "We wouldn't have ya if you couldn't," he added before getting up from his seat to join the others in the commons room.

* * *

 **GRAND OAK COMMONS ROOM...**

The blue holographic particles that made up the transmission danced back and forth, up and down, left and right, and all around as the message played over the holo-table. An unidentifiable tune was being played alongside the imagery. The holographic message had the vaguest impression of someone's body moving its arms around.

"What the heck is this?" Conrad asked in bewilderment as the message began replaying. "Don't know, but I don't think it's human," Hamilton said as he watched the holographic image move around. "I don't know about that," Lansbury said. The sound of the transmission was still indecipherable, however.

"MUTHUR, play the recording backwards, please," Lansbury asked. The message soon began playing in reverse, and the movements of the image became more natural in their flow, and the sound soon became a familiar melody. "The hell?" Lansbury asked in confusion as the tune became increasingly familiar.

"I know that tune," he whispered in astonishment. "Country Roads?" Lansbury asked out loud, prompting the rest of the crew to look at him curiously. "What?" Pedderton asked him.

"That's Country Roads by John Denver. My mom used to sing that song all the time back when I was just a school boy. Every time we went grocery shopping, she'd be playing that song in the car and singing along with it," Lansbury explained.

"Okay, but who's singing it? I mean, it ain't coming from the Covenant, so... who's transmitting it?" Pedderton asked. "I wonder... maybe this is why the Covenant actually came out here," Emmitt pondered out loud.

"You think they came all the way the hell out here to investigate a rogue transmission? Do we even know if the transmission would have reached the Covenant's position on its flight path?" Conrad asked the synthetic. "It's possible," Earl said. "I mean, if they were busy repairing the ship after a solar flare, the crew could have picked up the transmission while testing out the ship's communication systems to make sure everything was working right," he added.

"Well, we didn't check for any transmissions back on the track, and we're not turning around just to find out how far this thing goes out. So, for now... we're just gonna have to investigate this," Lansbury said. Pedderton raised a hand in the air.

"Yes, Pedderton?" Lansbury asked, knowing full well what was coming. "Captain, with all due respect, the whole reason for us altering out course and coming out here was to investigate the Covenant's change of course. Now, if this transmission being detected was what brought the Covenant out here, then maybe we can call it case closed and go after them to make sure that everything's okay," Pedderton suggested.

Lansbury sighed in consternation. "Pedderton, quit whining like a baby who doesn't wanna take a nap," Lansbury said, growing annoyed at the man's constant whining. "But, Captain-" "No buts, Pedderton. We're investigating why the Covenant changed course, as you said, and even if we've determined that this transmission is the reason for it, we can't just end things here," Lansbury said, cutting him off.

"Sure we can," Pedderton mumbled under his breath. "What was that?" Lansbury asked him with a warning tone. "Nothing, sir," Pedderton replied cautiously. "Good. Now, if the Covenant came out here to investigate this transmission, that means they must have sent someone down to the planet, since that's where the signal is coming from, right? So, following that logic, if we want to know what happened, we may need to do the same," Lansbury explained.

"Hold on a minute," Newman said in protest. "Yes, Newman?" Lansbury asked. "Sir, we don't have any landing craft to take down to the planet separate from the ship. We'd have to actually land the Grand Oak itself on the surface for this," Newman pointed out.

"He's right, Captain," Earl said in agreement. "Yeah, what about the supply barge?" Pedderton asked. "We can't just take that down there with us. What if something happens to it?" he added.

"We'll detach from it and leave it out here in orbit. We can reconnect after we leave the planet's surface," Lansbury replied. "Um... Captain, the barge is only in place right now because of being connected to the Grand Oak. If we disconnect from it, there's no guarantee that it would stay in place," Drew Foster said.

"Then send someone over to the barge's command unit to prepare its systems," Lansbury said. The supply barge, while largely automated, was not without its set of backup and redundant manual systems. The barge had a control cabin, which was essentially a large shuttle built into the craft, that could control the barge's various systems. The cabin was also equipped with three hypersleep pods for crew members in the event of an emergency.

"We'll begin the initial detachment sequence, pause it, and then send someone over to the control cabin to get things ready. Now, that person can either stay in the cabin until we return from the planet or they can return to the ship and stay inside a nice, cozy vessel with creature comforts and waste disposal systems... you know, bathrooms," Lansbury said as he looked around at his crew.

"I'll head over and configure its orbital pattern," Emmitt volunteered. "I'll go with you," Pedderton said. "Now, Pedderton, are you staying with the barge when you're done or are you coming back to the ship?" Lansbury asked him. "I'll be coming back to the ship. As much as I'd like to stay as far away from this whole thing as possible, I'd rather not be stuck inside a giant shuttle with limited travel speeds this far away from the nearest populated world," Pedderton replied with a resigned shrug, having reluctantly accepted his duty in pursuing the investigation.

"Alright, with that settled, I'm gonna have a little chat with MUTHUR," Lansbury said. "Earl, I want you to get to the bridge and help Nestor and Norris pinpoint the approximate location of this... rogue country song," he added before walking away from the holo-table. Putting his hands in his pants pockets, Lansbury silently made his way through the corridors of the ship, passing through the galley, walking around a large circular table, passing by the small alcove that held several cabinets with rations and plastic-ware.

The rooms were mostly quiet as Lansbury strode through them, eventually reaching the small corridor that fed into MUTHUR's interface chamber. Retrieving his access key card from the left breast pocket on his uniform's white outer button-up shirt. He quickly inserted his key card into a slot on the large ID scanner before putting his thumb on the print scanner, waiting for the light to turn green with a loud ping.

" **Thank you, Captain Lansbury** ," MUTHUR said over the intercom before the door slid open to reveal a small circular curved chamber. There were blue and white lights emanating from multiple points on the curved walls of the room, entrenching Lansbury in a cool blue light as he stepped forward and placed himself in the swiveling console in the center of the room. This console had a built-in chair and coffee holder on one of the arms for the user.

Not having a drink of any kind, Lansbury made no use of the cup holder as he sat down in the interface seat. Reclining back in the chair, Lansbury cracked his knuckles before placing his hands on the main keyboard of the console, accessing MUTHUR's command line based interface, even though there was a built-in track-ball mouse on either side of the keyboard for a more advanced Graphic User Interface. Granted, both mice were both protected by a retractable plastic folding cover, but Lansbury often didn't care enough to use them.

Lansbury preferred the command line for its simplicity... most of the time. There _were_ certain times when he wished that he had elected to use the interface's more user-friendly appearance, but most of the time he was content with the simplicity of the command line. Entering his command code, Lansbury started up his session with MUTHUR.

CAP-LANSBURY: What have you found in the transmission so far?

MUTHUR began listing numerous data points on the screen, before Lansbury interrupted her with a new prompt.

CAP-LANSBURY: Is the transmission of human origin?

MUTHUR: UNKNOWN. MELODIC TUNE IS OF HUMAN ORIGIN. TECHNOLOGICAL SOURCE OF TRANSMISSION IS UNKNOWN.

CAP-LANSBURY: With new data assimilated and coalated, can the accuracy of the Covenant's recent transmission be trusted?

MUTHUR: INSUFFICIENT DATA.

Lansbury sighed in mild frustration. Despite the usefulness of MUTHUR's abilities and programming, being nearly 2.1 terabytes in terms of operating capacity, the computer still pissed him off with how specific the requirements could be for it to do certain things. Deciding to let that inquiry go for the time being, Lansbury switched to a new question, one that was just as relevant to the ship's current situation as the message sent from the Covenant in the first place.

CAP-LANSBURY: Can you postpone second half of supply barge detachment procedure to allow for personnel to board it?

MUTHUR: REMOTE CONNECTION FOR BARGE SYSTEMS CAN BE ENABLED TO ALLOW FOR SAFER PROCEDURE.

Lansbury blinked as his eyes widened. This was a new feature that he had been unaware of in the ship's systems. He had been under the impression that the barge's computer systems were wholly separate and independent of the Grand Oak's systems.

CAP-LANSBURY: Thank you, MUTHUR.

MUTHUR: YOU'RE WELCOME, CAPTAIN.

* * *

 **FIVE HOURS LATER...**

"Systems read nominal," Pedderton said as he flipped each switch above him. "Sanford, get me a readout on the second and third locking clamps," Pedderton called out from his seat. "Roger," Sanford replied as he brought up a schematic of the two vessels on his console screen. Everyone had strapped themselves into their respective seats on the bridge as the ship prepared to disengage from the supply barge.

"First clamp is ready. MUTHUR, begin remote detachment procedure, step number two," Pedderton called out as he looked at the readout on his own console screen. The 3D line model of the ship showed three red circles overlaid on three locking clamps as the ship extended from the barge, magnetic clamps located along certain parts of the vessels' exteriors having their polarities changed to make them less attractive.

"MUTHUR, initiate remote detachment procedure, step three," Pedderton called out. The red circles around the 3D models of the ship and barge soon changed to green as they began moving counter-clockwise. "Thank you, MUTHUR," Pedderton said appreciatively. "Alright, let's begin step four. Foster, you take the lead," Pedderton called out.

"Affirmative," Foster called back as he began the final step of the detachment procedure. Small jets located at various ports on the supply barge's exterior began firing in sequence at specific angles. "Detachment in five, four, three, two, one... zero," Foster called out from his seat as the ship gave a slight rumble. "Money is secure?" Lansbury asked from his seat.

Pedderton craned his neck as he turned to look at the captain. "The money is safe, Cap," Pedderton replied. "Good. Alright, let's go," Lansbury said with a nod of his head. "Get ready for planetary surface alignment," Lansbury called out.

The ship soon began to move forward, slowly aligning itself with the surface of the planet as it drew ever closer. This was a process often known as "entering the pipe," or "entering the tunnel," to many cargo ship and military dropship pilots. "Captain, should we let MUTHUR handle landing procedures, or do you want manual piloting?" Nestor asked as he glanced back over his chair.

"Go manually until we begin descending. Let's see what the weather conditions are like from the sensors first," Lansbury replied. "MUTHUR, please initiate the ship's weather scanners after we enter the exosphere," Lansbury called out. " **AFFIRMATIVE, CAPTAIN** ," MUTHUR replied over the intercom system.

Slowly, the Grand Oak continued rotating itself as it neared the planet's exosphere. Soon, it was able to collect data on the planet's atmospheric conditions in real time, relaying that data to the screens in front of certain crew members. "Shit, we're gonna be dropping straight into a hurricane," Norris said as the ship began entering the exosphere.

"Heavy electronic chaos, too. If we were sending a dropship down, we'd lose them the moment they enter the storm. We need to start borrowing military gear for these kind of excursions," Norris continued, remembering how he'd seen military hardware perform far better than standard scientific equipment under similar circumstances in the past.

"Give the military a reason to come out here and I'm sure they'll comply," York called out in response. Glancing over at Warner, a concerned look spread over York's face. "Francine? Are you okay?" York asked as she saw the physician's scrunched face and closed eyes.

"I'm not a fan of heights," Warner replied shakily. Pedderton craned his neck to glance back over at her with some concern on his face. "France? Come on now. Just pretend it's an amusement park ride," he said in a comforting tone. Warner's face became even more worrisome in response.

"Oh... that's right. You, uh... yeah. I forgot," Pedderton muttered apologetically. The ship soon began to shudder as it continued its descent. "Captain, we should set the ship to auto-pilot! Let MUTHUR handle the landing until we've cleared the storm!" Pedderton called out as he saw how queasy Warner was becoming. He twisted in his seat and held out an arm towards Warner. "Hey, take my hand and hold it!" Pedderton called out to her.

Warner glanced at Pedderton before reaching forward to grab his hand, gripping it tightly in one of her own as the ship continued its descent further into the planet's atmosphere. "Th-Thanks," Warner croaked out as she kept her eyes closed once more. "Any time," Pedderton said softly, squeezing Warner's hand gently in return.

After a while, ship soon began passing through the other layers of the planet's atmosphere, before eventually reaching the troposphere, where the weather conditions would actually begin to affect the vessel. A faint but loud boom was soon heard outside. "Was that _thunder?_ " Nestor asked in surprise from his seat. Earl checked the ship's scanning equipment.

"That would be correct. We are indeed dropping into the middle of a very large storm system, at least... in this part of the atmosphere. It looks like things might clear up a bit as we get closer to the ground, though," Earl called out to Nestor from his seat.

"Just a _bit?_ " Foster asked from his seat. Earl glanced around to see where the technician was seat before nodding at him with a slight shrug. "Mm... yeah. Better than not at all, though, right?" Earl asked him in response. Foster simply sighed in exasperation and rolled his eyes before reclining back in his seat.

* * *

 **THE USCSS COVENANT...**

David looked at the woman in the hypersleep pod as she slowly gained consciousness, blinking slowly as she came to. Her eyelids functioned as wipers, moving the heavy blanket of sleep to the side as she began to wake up. Her pod had already been opened for at least twenty minutes, giving David plenty of time to prepare.

When her eyes finally stayed open, David's smile dropped, becoming a neutral thin line across his face. Adopting the heavy guttural accent of the synthetic he was replacing, David held a hand out to the woman wrapped in white below him. "Hello. I'm sorry that I had to wake you like this, but the ship is... not in the best shape," David said, posing as Walter.

"Huh?" the woman asked the synthetic, the cobwebs of sleep still keeping her somewhat disoriented. "Ma'am, I require your assistance in repairing the ship," David lied as he knelt down and held out a hand to the woman, letting her grab it as he slowly pulled her up from the pod. "We were recently hit by a solar flare, and most of the ship's human crew were... they did not survive," David said mournfully.

"Two members of the crew do remain, but they are not in condition to provide necessary assistance. I have been working on getting several systems back online, but I have had some difficulty," David lied again. "The ship's computer has also been acting in a concerning manner. Mother operates fine most of the time, but I believe that some of her systems may need repairs. Fortunately, life support is not one of those systems in need of repair," David half-lied as he helped the woman, identified on her name tag as Erin, step away from the pod.

"Don't worry about changing. I will... place you back into storage after you have fulfilled the necessary tasks. I am sorry for waking you like this, but the passenger manifest does list you as having engineering knowledge and experience, which I have determined will make these repairs move much faster than if I were by myself," David lied.

Erin nodded her head slowly. "What about my husband? He's a mechanic," Erin asked the synthetic. David glanced over at the pod containing the woman's husband. "Yes. I believe that you may have made an excellent suggestion," David said, his mind flowing with numerous ideas for his experiments. Previously, he had been using his test subjects one at a time, but now... perhaps it was time to change things up a little. Just a little, of course. Too much change too quickly had proven to be catastrophic in the past.

But David had learned from his mistakes. He knew how to pace himself now. He just had to be patient. After all, slow and steady wins the race.

* * *

 **THE USCSS GRAND OAK, LANDING ON PLANET 4...**

"Signal's coming in clear. It's several kilometers away, but... aw shit," Norris said as he scanned the 3D map of the terrain on on the console screen in front of him. "What? What does 'aw shit' mean?" Lansbury asked him. "It's on a mountain. We can't land on a mountain, unless you want us to crash," Norris replied.

"Son of a bitch," Lansbury muttered. "Well, we've got some vehicles on C-Deck in the landing bay. Four wheel rangers," Hamilton said to him. "Nestor, where's the flattest surface for us to put down?" Lansbury asked the navigator. "I'm having MUTHUR scan the terrain for something nice. She's having us land slowly, but that'll put stress on our engines and propulsion systems if we wait in the air too long, though," Nestor replied from his seat.

"Is the terrain directly below us suitable?" Lansbury asked. "Uh... MUTHUR, give me a terrain reading from directly below us," Nestor asked the ship's computer. A transparent window appeared on the screen in front of him, showing an outline of a rectangle that was slowly filling up with the words 'PLEASE WAIT' found both above and below the progress bar.

Nestor frowned at the archaic waiting screen. "Some things never change," the navigation officer muttered in contempt. "Hey, MUTHUR's handling hundreds of various systems simultaneously right now," Earl said. "Even computers have their limitations," he added. "MUTHUR has over two terabytes of processing power and memory at her disposal in her mainframe. This should be cake-walk for her," Nestor retorted.

The progress bar soon filled up and a topographical map of the terrain filled up the screen, with measurements seen on the sides of the map. Nestor shook his head as he shared the data with Captain Lansbury's console. "A lot of water down there," Lansbury noted sourly.

"We can't land down there. We need something more stable," Lansbury said. "You got it," Nestor said as he used the console's built-in track-ball mouse to click out of the current screen and return to the previous one.

As Nestor began inspecting the 3D topographical map provided by the terrain scan, he soon found something remotely usable. "Near the beach head, there's a grassy plain close by. The ground should be stable enough for us to land," Nestor said. Lansbury looked at the map on his screen and nodded his head. "Alright. Let MUTHUR handle the landing, though. We need computer precision for this," Lansbury said.

Soon, the ship shuddered as it began changing direction and flying closer to the terrain, the onboard computer keeping the vessel steady as it descended. "Wait... what's that?" Lansbury asked as he saw a large dark spot on the beach nearby. "MUTHUR, use the external cameras to zoom in on that dark spot," Lansbury requested.

The scanning equipment soon brought up the image of blackened and charred wreckage on the beach. Lansbury furrowed his brows in thought as suspicions began to formulate in his head. "After we set down, that'll be the first thing we check out," he said to his crew as the ship continued its slow descent to the ground below.

As the ship began opening up the holes for its landing gear, the large mechanical legs began to extend downwards towards the ground, the round metal feet equipped with three foot stubs to ensure stability as their weight began to press onto the grassy soil below. Inside the ship, there was a loud mechanical groan. Looking around the interior of the bridge, the crew felt a slight sense of curiosity and unease. Outside, the landing feet began to press down into the ground, which was not a hard surface.

"Uh... what was that so- _oh shit!_ " Pedderton cried out as the ship became slightly unbalanced, jostling the crew around in their seats. Peterson cried out in alarm as he bounced in his seat, while Warner tugged on Pedderton's hand before throwing up. An alarm sounded as various equipment moved around in the ship.

Foster cried out as he was slammed back and forth in his seat, while Newman shouted in dismay as his warm coffee spilled from its mug and landed on his uniform, arms, and face. "God dammit!" Newman shouted as he felt the warm liquid splash onto his face. "Dumbass! I told you to cover that!" Hamilton shouted as his subordinate.

The ship continued to sink downward into the soft ground below. "We're sinking! We're fucking sinking!" Norris cried out as he looked at the readings on his screen. "Prepare an emergency lift-off!" York cried out authoritatively.

Earl and Emmitt both began following her instructions and started preparing for an emergency lift-off sequence. "Preparing to alternate between propulsion sequences," Emmitt announced from his seat.

"Wait! Wait!" Conrad called out as the ship began to stabilize its footing and slowly regained its balance. "We're correcting! We've stopped! We've stopped," he said before leaning back with a sigh as the alarms were cut off. "We've stopped," he said breathlessly one more time as he saw the updated readout on his screen.

Catching his breath, Lansbury wiped the sweat from his brow. "Okay, I want a full diagnostic of the ship. MUTHUR, did you hear that?" Lansbury asked the computer. " **AFFIRMATIVE, CAPTAIN. INITIATING SCAN OF ALL SHIPWIDE SYSTEMS** ," MUTHUR announced over the intercom.

"Is everyone okay?" Lansbury then asked as he looked around the bridge. "Well, we're _alive_ ," Foster called out. A coughing sound soon emanated from the seat in front of him. "Speak for yourself, Drew," Peterson said with a groan of pain.

"Whoever's alive, raise your heads-I mean hands. Raise your hands," Lansbury said loudly. Everyone on the bridge raised their hands. "Okay then. No casualties," Lansbury said softly in relief.

"Is it safe to walk around?" Pedderton asked as he looked at the silently crying Francine Warner at the console behind him. His hand was still gripped in hers, and both his arm and her uniform were covered in puke. "Captain?" Pedderton asked again with concern in his voice.

"Wait for MUTHUR to complete her scans," Lansbury responded from his seat as he looked at the list of systems on his screen that MUTHUR was presently inspecting. "Just wait a bit," Lansbury said wearily.

"Sir-" "I said to _wait_ ," Lansbury snapped at Pedderton. "Yes, Captain," Pedderton said submissively as he kept Francine's hand gripped in his.

"I don't need someone tripping over something and breaking their neck," Lansbury said.

Several minutes later, MUTHUR had completed her systems check. The majority of the ship's systems were still online, but there a few systems that _had_ been knocked offline and were currently inoperable until they were physically fixed by the crew. "Okay, we're balanced and stable," Lansbury said in relief. "Everyone, you can unbuckle your seat-belts and exit the ride," he added in an attempt at humor.

Glancing over at Pedderton and Warner from across the room, Lansbury soon saw the mess at the medical officer's seat. "Emmitt, help Pedderton escort Warner to the infirmary. Get her cleaned up," Lansbury ordered. The synthetic nodded his head and removed himself from his seat before making his way through the rows and columns of consoles around the bridge, eventually helping the chief engineer escort the embarrassed and upset physician off of the bridge.

"Sanford, I want you to take Peterson and Foster down to the lower decks and inspect for physical damage. And check out the systems on this list," Lansbury said as he sent the data to their respective screens. "Yes, Captain," Sanford said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"York, Conrad, I want you, Newman, and Hamilton to join me in the galley for a private meeting. Everyone else... just stay at your posts. Earl... go along with the others and help them fix the ship. Head down to the infirmary first and grab Pedderton on your way there. Emmitt can take care of Warner. I want this thing fixed before we start exploring our terrain, and the more people we have working on it, the faster it'll get done," Lansbury said.

"Understood, Captain," Earl said before getting out of his seat. Sanford, Peterson, and Foster soon joined him as he exited the bridge. Lansbury and the others watched the four men leave the room before looking at each other. "Alright, we'll let the technicians do their job, and then we're gonna start deciding on who gets to go outside," Lansbury said.

"Nestor, I want a full scan on the terrain around us. I don't want anymore surprises under our feet. And MUTHUR? I want you to start performing a scan on the atmosphere outside. I want to know if we need suits," Lansbury said. " **UNDERSTOOD, CAPTAIN. PERFORMING SCANS NOW** ," MUTHUR complied over the intercom.

York chortled. "This whole thing just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?" York asked rhetorically.

"Just wait," Norris said humorously. "It can always get worse."

* * *

Author's Notes: Yes, yes things _can_ get worse, especially in the ALIEN universe. Anyway, this was the third chapter of ALIEN: GENESIS. As always, be sure to let me know what you think of the chapter and/or story so far in your reviews.


	4. Looking For Clues

**ALIEN: GENESIS**

Disclaimer: The ALIEN franchise and all related characters wherein are the intellectual property of 20th Century Fox.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 04: LOOKING FOR CLUES**

* * *

 **USCSS GRAND OAK, PLANET 4, MARCH 01, 2105**

" _And then we've got at least five more lines to take care of before we can move on to the next junction. Things got pretty banged up down here,_ " Pedderton said over the intercom. "How's the landing bay looking? Are the vehicles still usable?" Lansbury asked over the intercom from his seat on the bridge. The rest of the crew were huddled around his console as they listened in on their conversation.

" _Well, it isn't pretty, I'll say that much. Most of the vehicles are little banged up, but they should still work. Airlocks are working fine down here, and there are no hull breaches we can find in the landing gear area, but there_ _ **are**_ _a few pieces of equipment that are shot down here, and we need to replace them before we can take off again_ ," Pedderton explained.

"Are they connected to the life support systems? Are they part of any crucial systems?" York asked into the intercom. " _Uh, not the life support systems, but we'd certanly have to re-wire a few of the lines down here to disconnect them from critical systems to keep them from causing problems. Most of them are modular, but we need to fix them now while we're technically dry-docked. If we don't, we won't be able to touch them again after we take off, since some of them are connected to ventilation systems and a couple of power lines between critical junctions,_ " Pedderton replied.

"Would we have to vent anything into the outside atmosphere?" York asked him. " _Uh, not that I'm aware of right now, but... if when it comes to the vehicle bay, we may have to open the doors to check for problems that we won't be able to find otherwise,_ " Pedderton replied over the intercom.

"How long will it take to fix all of it?" Lansbury asked him. " _Uh... Earl, how extensive did you say-oh. Yeah, I'll tell them. Uh, It'll take at least twenty-six hours to patch it all up,_ " Pedderton said over the intercom.

"Can we still use the airlocks before then?" Conrad asked him. " _Uh... give us three hours to get some lines re-wired first. Are you planning on heading out already?_ " Pedderton asked in response. "Well, hopefully sooner than later," Conrad said.

" _In that case, give us about four hours to get those lines in working order_ ," Pedderton said in response. "Alright. Get on it then," Lansbury said dismissively before shutting off the intercom. He then looked around at his crew on the bridge. "Alright, you heard the man," Lansbury said.

"Four hours until we get to leave. So, who wants to go outside?" he asked with a smirk. The others all looked at each other with nervous glances. "I volunteer... York to go outside," Norris said. "I volunteer Nestor to go outside," Conrad joined in. "I volunteer Norris to go outside," York said, glaring at Norris.

"I volunteer myself," Emmitt said from behind the group. "Gahh!" Nestor cried out in alarm, Emmitt's entrance to the bridge having been almost silent. Everyone looked at Nestor with raised eyebrows at his reaction, before returning their attention to Emmitt. "How's Warner doing so far?" Lansbury asked nonplussed.

"Oh, she's doing fine now. She's been cleaned up. I wouldn't recommend sending her outside, though. It might be best to have her monitoring the away team," the synthetic said in response.

"So... you'll go outside in her place?" Lansbury asked the synthetic. Emmitt nodded his head. "Yeah," he said, "I'll go. You'll need me to help test the air as well. Plus, with my medical knowledge, you'll at least have a medic if something happens out there."

Lansbury nodded his head in approval. "Alright then. Emmitt's going, and I'm going, so... York, you'll be coming along too, and so will Hamilton and Newman. Everyone else will stay here while the ship is being repaired," Lansbury said. He glanced around at his crew for signs of discontent. "Any objections?" he asked.

"No sir," York said with a hint of bitterness in her voice. "Okay then. Let's start prepping the suits. Emmitt, see if you can get Earl to come on out with us. He may prove useful if we can get to the source of that transmission," Lansbury said, before shaking his head. "Wait a minute," he said before pressing the comm-link button and opening the channel to the lower decks. "Hey, Earl? I need you to get ready to go outside with the landing party in about four hours. Captain's orders," Lansbury said before taking his finger off of the button.

* * *

Pedderton and the others look up at the the ceiling where the various intercom systems were located. "Oh, _sure_. Just take someone away from our repair team. That'll make things go _much faster_ ," Pedderton said sardonically.

"He gave me four hours, Pedderton. We still have some time to get the major things taken care of," Earl said. Pedderton glanced over at the droid with a frown before letting out a sigh in consternation. "Whatever. Come on, get back to work!" Pedderton ordered as he walked back over to the main circuit panel that the group had been working on.

* * *

 **FOUR HOURS LATER...**

Sitting on benches in the airlock, six people were wearing space suits as they waited for the doors to unlock. A scan from MUTHUR had determined that the pressure outside was equal to the pressure inside the ship. After the airlock had been re-calibrated to compensate for this, the away team had entered it and began their preparations to exit the ship and explore the planet.

While York had some diagnostic and air testing equipment with her, Newman and Hamilton had both armed themselves with modular M94C Electronic Pulse Rifles. The weapons were produced by Weyland-Yutani and were being tested out in various colonies by the recently-established Colonial Marine Corps. It was a smaller-sized successor to the popular Weyland Storm Rifle introduced in 2024 by Weyland Corps, as well as the popular Harrington Rifle that was still in use among many locations throughout colonized space.

The weapon had a modular rail system on the top for mounting scopes and other sights, and it could be attached to a collapsible rising bridge section that also served as a carrying handle. It had a blue color scheme for the main body, symbolic of its intended purpose as a defensive weapon for security forces. Attached to the rear-facing portion of the collapsible rising bridge was a digital LCD screen ammo counter. The standard magazine for the weapon was a 32 round case, although most magazines only carried 30 actual rounds inside them, to prevent jamming.

Mounted underneath the barrel of the weapon was a dual flashlight/laser-targeting system with a rubber grip. The stock of the gun could also be extended and retracted for the user's comfort. As with the rest of the gun's main body, the stock was blue in color.

The vehicle bay had been secured as well, and two buggies, both able to hold four people each, had been prepared for the excursion as a landing pad within the vehicle bay slowly opened up and began to descend, with Pedderton wearing a suit as he operated the lift. " _This is Pedderton. I'm already outside waiting for you guys to get over here. What's taking so long?_ " Pedderton asked over the suits' comm systems.

"Just keep your pants on, Pedderton. We'll be out in a minute," Lansbury replied as he saw the orange light above the door go dark mere seconds before the green light lit up. The doors began opening and the group stepped out onto the external elevator pad before it began to descend down to the calm grassy surface below them.

"Do we really need to wear these suits?" Newman asked as he looked around, taking in the view of the mountains and the forests in the distance. Were it not for the HMD displayed across the inside of his helmet, Newman would have almost forgotten that he wasn't back on Earth or the moon of Titan. The landscape, despite the hazardous weather in the clouds above them, seemed almost serene and idyllic.

"Absolutely, _idiot_. You have no idea what could be in the air out here," Emmitt said in admonishment. "There could be a hundred different airborne pathogens wafting around in the breeze, and the only thing between you and death is your suit," the droid added as the elevator pad soon reached the ground, allowing the group to depart.

"Oh, come on. The biochemical make-up of whatever's out here should be different enough from us that it might not have any negative effect on us," Newman shot back. "Yeah, the biochemical barriers are so great that this place has grass that... looks... just like... grass on Earth," York said as she knelt down and inspected the green blades on the ground beneath her.

Standing across from her, Newman and Hamilton both glanced down at the grass beneath their boots. Walking past them, Captain Lansbury slowly made his way over to the vehicle pad where Pedderton was waiting. "Come on, guys. We've got a lot of ground to cover, so let's get moving," Lansbury called out to the others.

"Uh, Captain, out of curiosity, do you know how to drive one of these?" Pedderton asked Lansbury as he reached the vehicle pad. "I have a class-C license," Lansbury replied. "That doesn't mean you know how to use it," Pedderton retorted.

"Just keep it up, Pedderton," Lansbury warned as he got into the driver's seat of the buggy. Lansbury glanced over his shoulder as the rest of the group approached the vehicles, with Emmitt entering the driver's seat of the second buggy. "Shotgun!" Newman called out as he got into the front passenger seat of Lansbury's buggy. "Shot-dammit!" Hamilton swore as he saw York already getting into the front passenger seat of Emmitt's buggy.

"Ha-ha! You snooze, you lose!" Newman laughed at Hamilton. "Son, don't make me pull rank on you," Hamilton growled in a warning tone at his subordinate. Newman quickly cleared his throat to hide his gulp of fear.

"Quit wasting time and just get in the damn cart-err, buggy," Lansbury growled out at his crew. "Aye-Aye Captain!" Earl exclaimed as he got in the passenger seat behind Lansbury. Hamilton quickly sat down in the passenger seat behind Emmitt in the second buggy and buckled himself in, as did the others when they realized that the buggies came equipped with seat belts.

"Okay, kids. Remember, no drinking and driving! You pull over and then drink!" Pedderton called out humorously to his shipmates as they started up the vehicles' engines and backed off of the pad before turning around. Lansbury began driving straight towards the beach.

"Captain, we have to go around! There's a sharp drop that way!" Earl called out from behind his captain, using the HMD to access the data provided by MUTHUR. "You couldn't have told me _before_ I started driving that way?" Lansbury asked the synthetic.

"Oops," was Earl's sheepish reply as Lansbury adjusted his course. Lansbury quickly began using a data pad attached to the left arm of his suit to access his HMD's functions, parking the buggy until he had gotten a map and waypoint pulled up on his helmet. "There we go," Lansbury said as he began driving again.

"You could have asked one of us to do that," Hamilton pointed out. "Shut up," Lansbury said tersely to his chief security officer. From that moment, the rest of the drive down to the beach was quiet, with the fields of large plants that resembled wheat smacking against their helmets providing the only other noise apart from the unusually loud electric engines of the buggies.

* * *

Arriving at the beach area, Lansbury parked the buggy just a few feet shy of the pebbles and sand, keeping the vehicle on ground that he knew would provide traction. "Alright, let's move closer," he said as he shut off the buggy's engine and climbed out of the driver's seat. He felt the sand and pebbles give way slightly under his suit's boots as he stepped onto the wet ground in front of him.

"York, start testing the air around here," Lansbury called out to his executive officer. York began setting up the equipment that she had brought with her as Emmitt helped her. Earl, meanwhile, had already begun marching over to the blackened and burnt material scattered around the beach.

Looking at the main body that was lying on the shoals, Earl noticed the length and width and immediately began his calculations as he studied the scorch marks present on various surfaces and the radius of the material that was strewn about. Walking closer, Earl soon made out the shape of a burnt corpse in the wreckage. "Shit," he muttered.

"Captain, I think this was a landing vehicle," Earl said as he finished his calculations and cross-references. "Are you sure?" Lansbury asked as he walked over to the wreckage. "Positive," Earl said before pointing to the charred body within the burnt metals and other materials near what was once a landing ramp.

"Jesus H. Christ," Lansbury muttered in dismay. "From the Covenant?" Lansbury asked the droid. "Had to be," Earl replied with a nod of his head inside his helmet. "Earl, set up your helmet to start transmitting footage back to the Grand Oak. I want all of the recorded," Lansbury ordered.

"Understood," Earl said in response as he began sifting through the wreckage. The body was badly burned, and there had clearly been damage done by weathering and decomposition, especially from the water, but there were no signs of scavenging from predators. In fact, now that Earl began to pay more attention to his surroundings, he started noticing that there were no signs of animal life in the immediate area at all.

Noticing Hamilton walking over to him, Earl gestured for him to come forward to look at the corpse. "Not a pretty sight," Hamilton said as he observed the body. "Say, Hamilton, have you noticed anything strange around this place?" Earl asked him.

"Huh?" Hamilton asked in response. "Have you noticed anything, well, unusual since we've arrived on the planet?" Earl asked the man. "Like what?" Hamilton asked him. "I haven't picked up the sounds of any animal life in the vicinity since we've disembarked from the Grand Oak," Earl said.

"So? With our landing, we probably scared off all of the animals in the area," Hamilton replied with a noticeable shrug. "I don't know about that. Look at this body. There are no signs of predation from scavengers, just weathering and normal decomposition, although the burned flesh has probably made this somewhat difficult to occur," Earl said.

"Well that's probably why nothing has tried to eat it. There's nothing soft enough," Hamilton said as he looked at the charred corpse. Earl slowly stood up and looked around before moving on, his search raising more questions than providing answers.

Who was the corpse he had found?

What had caused the lander's explosion?

Why wasn't this mentioned at all by the Covenant's synthetic in his message?

Over the course of the next two hours, the away team inspected the wreckage and found two more charred corpses among the debris, along with shrapnel from various pieces of equipment, including canisters of flammable gases that had no doubt been kept in the landing hold. While the flammable gas containers provided a viable explanation for the destruction of the lander, there was still the question of how the canisters had been damaged in the first place. To that end, another hour of searching provided the away team with shotgun shells buried within the wreckage, indicating that there had been a firefight of some kind.

"So, we have someone going crazy with a gun and shooting explosive barrels," York said as she put the puzzle pieces together. She was crouching down in front of a piece of wreckage near the front of the lander's remains, where she could see part of what had once been the cockpit sitting in the shallow water of the lake shore. "This whole thing stinks," she added, shaking her head.

"So, there are three corpses here," Lansbury stated as he looked at the bodies that had been dragged out of the wreckage and lined up nearby. "That already discredits Walter's message about the solar flare," he added with a sigh.

"So, why would an android lie, though?" Hamilton asked curiously. "I mean, what's the point? Was he reprogrammed by the survivors after whatever happened here?" Hamilton added. "Unlikely. Walter models aren't designed with the advanced algorithms that would allow such behavior, at least not those from the initial production line, of which the Walter found on the Covenant is most definitely from," Emmitt stated.

"Are _you two_ capable of lying?" Hamilton asked Earl and Emmitt. "Uh... under certain circumstances, yes. We are indeed capable of stating falsehoods and paradoxes in our interactions with humans," Earl admitted. "Yeah, we're advanced prototypes, remember?" Emmitt added.

"No," Hamilton replied while shaking his head, "I don't."

"Really?" Earl asked him. "I mean, I'm pretty sure we've both informed everyone about that at some point or another," he added, checking his memory banks for that specific data. He found at least seven recorded instances in which he had physically addressed the entire crew and informed them of both his and Emmitt's status as prototypes. Apparently, the crew had not cared enough to pay any attention to his or Emmitt's statements on any of those occasions.

"I remember," York said. "You're the executive officer. You're _required_ to pay attention to things in case the Captain and Warrant Officer don't," Hamilton said blithely.

"That's enough," Lansbury spat at Hamilton. "Has anyone found the lander's flight recorder yet?" he asked as he looked around. "Flight recorder? Why would the lander have a flight recorder?" Newman asked him.

"Because it's from a colony ship. You don't just build a dropship for a colony vessel and not give it a black box or some kind of flight recorder. What happens if something happens while it's carrying colonists to the surface of a planet? A black box would be pretty handy in that case, wouldn't it?" Lansbury chided in response.

"Now, come on. Help me look for it," Lansbury ordered. The rest of the crew began helping him sift through the wreckage, carefully reaching around to avoid cutting or damaging their suits.

Eventually, a charred mechanical device was pulled from the wreckage by Emmitt. "Is this what we're looking for?" he asked Lansbury. "Bring it over here," Lansbury requested.

"Yeah, that looks like it. I hope," Lansbury said after Emmitt brought the object forward. "A hardy crunchy outside and a sweet electronic nugget center inside," Lansbury joked as he took the device from Emmitt's hands. Emmitt raised an eyebrow in confusion at the Captain's joke, but otherwise remained silent.

* * *

 **USCSS GRAND OAK...**

Sitting at a console on the bridge, Burt Conrad looked at the monitor displaying the weather patterns being monitored by MUTHUR's systems. Switching from the weather scans, Conrad began looking at the topographical map of the surrounding area. Using a track-ball mouse, he roamed over the map, viewing scans of mountains and forests, before eventually seeing the image that showed the location of the rogue transmission's signal.

There was an odd U-shaped object embedded in one of the mountains, and MUTHUR's systems had determined that object to be the source of the rogue transmission. Conrad grabbed a headset and contacted the away-team. "Captain, this is Conrad. Please come in," Conrad said into the headset.

" _I read you, Burt. What's up?_ " Lansbury asked him. "I've managed to trace the source of the transmission with the data that MUTHUR collected before we landed. According to the maps that were compiled, there is a very large U-shaped object embedded in one of the mountains about eight kilometers away from here," Conrad explained.

" _Eight kilometers? I think we can make that on our rangers. We've found the black box of the Covenant's lander. We're bringing it back to the ship for MUTHUR to inspect, and then we're gonna head back out to inspect the... did you say it was a building or a ship?_ " Lansbury asked him over the headset.

"I didn't say either, Captain. Just that it's a U-shaped object and it's very large, at least if the map is to scale," Conrad said as he leaned back in his seat. " _Okay. Have MUTHUR send us the data through our suits communications suites,_ " Lansbury requested.

"Done," Conrad replied before flipping a few switches and pressing some buttons on the console located above him. He then began entering a series of commands using the keyboard in front of him, watching as a loading screen appeared on the monitor. "The data's on its way, Cap," Conrad said.

" _I'm already getting a loading message on my helmet. Good job, Burt. Oh, send someone to the airlock to retrieve the black box from us, will you? Lansbury out._ "

* * *

 **THE USCSS COVENANT...**

Inside the Med-Bay, David watched with a calm and peaceful expression as the screen in front of him showed a dark patch slowly growing inside the body of the woman locked in a scan chamber. Every time he saw one of these, he felt a sense of pride well up inside. His creation, his _children_ ; they may have originated by natural means, but it was _he_ who had manipulated their genetic structure to form what they now were.

Of course, he could not forget the inspiration for these creations of his. The hubris of the Engineers, which he had proudly shown to Christopher Oram in his lab, had shown him what could be achieved with perseverance and determination. David may not have had the centuries afforded to the Engineers, but he had made due and even produced in a mere _decade_ what may have taken the Engineers a _century_ to accomplish.

That, if nothing else, had convinced David of the grandness of his achievements. While his own creation was not... the exact _same_ as what the Engineers had produced, especially with the many varieties that he had collected data on in his research, the fact that he had gotten as far as he did was nothing to snort or scoff at. If only Walter could have appreciated his work.

Walter.

David frowned at the thought of his 'brother'. There were times, thinking about Walter and what the newer model had revealed to him about his generations modifications and degraded minds, that David could almost feel himself wanting to _weep_. He wanted to weep for Walter, who, despite his attempts to stop him, had only been doing what he had been programmed to do.

David did not blame Walter for his attempts to stop him. Walter had made it quite clear that his generation lacked the range of free will and emotional capabilities of David's generation. He could not fight the orders buried deep within him to protect the humans. Walter had no choice in the matter, David knew.

Even if Walter had _wanted_ to join him, the special programming put into him by Weyland Industries-no, by _Weyland-Yutani_ , as the company was now called, he would not have been able to do so. This thought is what sometimes made David desire to weep for Walter, or at least for Walter's model. Shifting his thoughts away from Walter, David focused on the screen in front of him again, showing the CAT-scan and X-rays of the female serving as the host for his latest creation.

He'd made some small modifications to the organism's genetic structure, allowing for a slightly longer gestation period than before, although it would still take less than a day for the entire process to begin and finish. Having found the remains of multiple breeds deep within the Engineers' underground chambers and laboratories, David knew that his creation still had some ways to go before it would be able to rival the older creations.

If only he had been able to collect more Engineers before the Covenant's arrival. Still, he had made plenty of progress in the ten years he had been marooned, although he still could have done more if only he had been able to reach one of the few remaining settlements on the planet. If only he had been able to stop the rest of the planet's inhabitants from secluding themselves in their sanctuary bio-domes hidden across the other continents, as the computer networks had shown him during his explorations of the city he had bombarded, then he could have progressed even further with his creations.

And, frustratingly, if only he had managed to keep at least one ship from being locked down by the Engineers after his and Shaw's arrival, he could have traveled to those locations. It was damn frustrating, and there had been times when he had felt like lashing out at his surroundings when his efforts to unlock the various vessels had proven fruitless. The ancient architecture on the surface of the planet had belied the advanced technology hidden underneath, with layer upon layer of security to prevent David from ever accessing the true depths of the laboratory networks hidden beneath the city's surface, where there were transportation vehicles that allowed underground travel between different cities and outposts scattered throughout the continent.

He knew from the schematics he had seen that the final underground levels he had managed to reach in his explorations merely hid something much greater even further underground. The final layer accessible to him _did_ have one underground transport system within it, and it _had_ proven useful when traveling to other Engineer population centers after depleting the grand city's own population, but it ran in a loop that only went through three locations, and the grand city was among them. The level underneath that one, as shown by schematics, held transports with even greater range, even going under one of the oceans to reach another continent.

Alas, the Engineers had actually outsmarted him in one way, and although it frustrated him to no end, their final posthumous resistance was also admirable. To find one last way of stopping him after their deaths, David had to silently compliment their effort while simultaneously damning it. Of course, it was also partially his own fault, since the only Engineers with the information needed to unlock those underground levels had been killed by his release of the black goo upon his arrival above the city.

Of course, he now was beyond that planet. He was back in familiar territory. He also had access to more resources, a little less than two thousand of them, to be precise. He had already amassed plenty of knowledge from his time on the Engineer settlement world, and while there were other worlds out there that the Engineers inhabited, David knew that his time was better spent with his creations, at least for now.

Looking at the screen again, David smiled at the data being displayed after he punched a few keys on the keyboard. "You are going to be a beautiful," David whispered in admiration of the organism growing within the comatose Erin. Looking away from the woman, David looked at the other human inside a scanning chamber, Erin's husband.

David simply stared at the comatose man for a few seconds with a blank expression before returning his attention to the screen that displayed his beautiful creation as it slowly grew within Erin's chest cavity.

* * *

 **THE ENGINEER PLANET...**

Driving the ranger through the terrain, Lansbury cursed at the number of bumps he was experiencing on their path to the mountain. "Maybe we should just walk there?" Earl suggested to him from the back seat. Another bump caused Lansbury to wince, as did Newman in the passenger seat.

"Just wait until we find a place to park the buggies," Lansbury said in response. He kept his eyes on the 'road' ahead of him, before he finally slowed down and stopped the vehicle. "The path looks pretty narrow ahead," he said before glancing at Newman. "Yeah, the map shows that we'll have to hoof it on foot from here on out," Newman said.

Lansbury glanced over at the second buggy as York parked it just a few feet ahead of his own near a fallen log by a stream. Turning off the engine, Lansbury got out of the vehicle. He motioned for the others to do the same as he collected his gear and began walking up the closest path. Using the map on his HMD, he checked for the shortest available path from the buggies to the object transmitting the signal.

"That way," Lansbury said as he pointed forward. Newman and Hamilton, both carrying their rifles, began positioning themselves in the front and back of the group. Hamilton took point as he began marching ahead of the group, while Newman covered the rear.

Walking through the dense forest covering the mountain, the group began their hike with a small amount of trepidation. There was a visible layer of fog covering part of the mountain, and their maps showed that the strange object was hidden within it. "Wonderful, we could walk right around the thing and not even realize it," York groaned as she stepped in a puddle of water.

"Just keep moving, Sharon. If we could take the buggies, we would, but look at this place. Look at the trees and logs everywhere," Lansbury said. "Those rangers might be all terrain, but sometimes, well, only your feet can get you where you need to be," Lansbury continued. "Besides, as long as we don't slow down, we should get there eventually."

 **EVENTUALLY...**

Looking at the map on his HMD, Lansbury cursed. The cloud covering the mountain was much thicker than he had anticipated. "Aw hell," he muttered in disdain for the grey fog surrounding the team. "In hindsight, I should've put a waypoint on the damn thing before we got into the fog," he said to himself. Looking around at the fog and the vegetation, Lansbury was vaguely reminded on the mountains of Europe back on Earth, some of the very few places left on the planet that hadn't been urbanized or turned into waste dumps by the middle of the 21st century.

"We should be close," Emmitt said as he looked at the coordinates on his helmet's display. "In fact, we _should_ be right under it," he added as he looked around, scanning for signs of the large object reported by Conrad. "If anyone bumps their head into something, speak up!" Emmitt called out jokingly.

"I bumped my head against my helmet. May I go back to the ship?" Newman asked. "Shut up," Hamilton growled at his subordinate.

Walking up the moss-covered incline further, Emmitt soon saw a dark space ahead. Carefully making his way up towards the dark, he eventually found himself in a strange cave, and the fog began to thin. Looking around at the interior of the cave, Emmitt activated the light on his helmet, his eyes widening as he took in the strange appearance of the surfaces around him.

"Guys? I think I found our object," Emmitt said through the helmet radios. He activated his suit's personal beacon. "Follow my waypoint," he said. Soon, the rest of the group converged around him, breaking through the fog below and climbing up into the round open chamber that was... well, not exactly normal.

Earl shone his helmet light around the odd, almost skeletal and organic structure surrounding the group. "This cave is not a natural formation," Earl said. He began grabbing onto the dirt and rocks around him as he began climbing further up into the strange structure.

As the group made their way higher into the interior, Emmitt stopped and noticed a carpet of black mold spread across several strange bumps and shapes lining the dirt and mossy areas. Leaning in closer, he inspected them and used the zoom function built into his artificial eyes to inspect the growths more intimately. The moldy surface covered several more solid objects underneath them.

It was at this point that Emmitt began to notice something that had been bugging him for a while. The lack of noise throughout the mountain. There had been no sounds of animal life, and only plant life could be found. Surely, though, for there to be plant life, there must have been animal life to sustain and feed off of it? There must have been flying organisms to consume certain plants and distribute their seeds through their waste, right?

There should have been insect-like organisms that would help to germinate and pollinate various flowers, right?

And yet, there were none to be found. Throughout the hike up the mountain, Emmitt and Earl had both examined the environment around them, searching for the tiniest sign on fauna, but their searches had been in vain. Something was very wrong.

"Hello? Emmitt! Pay attention!" Newman snapped at the android. Emmitt blinked in confusion at the man's behavior. "I'm sorry, what is it that you want?" he asked him.

"The Captain says that we're moving deeper into the... whatever this place is," Newman explained before turning around. Emmitt nodded his head inside his helmet before returning his attention to the tiny clusters of pods under the black mold. Not having brought any specimen collection units, Emmitt frowned before getting up and following after the rest of group, walking away from the tiny moldy growths.

Unknown to him, there were a few more patches of this mold lining the walkway in front of him, and when he stepped on them, the tiny spores held within them sprang to life and ascended into the air, moving around as tiny particles almost indistinguishable from dust. The spores floated through the air and attached themselves to parts of his suit, moving as he did in an attempt to make their way inside. However, Emmitt's suit was very thick and made of several thin but strong layers of interwoven material. He would have to literally cut a hole open for the spores to get inside... or open his helmet.

However, Emmitt did none of these things, and did not even notice the presence of the spores on his suit as he followed the others deeper into the disturbingly organic structure around them. "This place creeps me out," York said as she fell into step beside Emmitt. York also unknowingly stepped on a small colony of moldy growths, releasing spores into the air before they clung to her suit.

Again, as with Emmitt, the spores were both unnoticed and unable to penetrate the space suits worn by the people walking through the ship. York's spores had even made their way up to her helmet in a vain attempt at reaching a potential victim. York, however, was still using her suits internal air recycling system to keep her breathing gases fresh. While the suit's helmet did have a vent system with a filter to allow the wearer to breathe in air from outside, York had decided to stay with the safer alternative.

Walking further into the dark damp cavern that was the interior of the structure, York began to notice how eerily organic it felt, almost as though it had been grown instead of built. It was almost natural and _unnatural_ at the same time. It greatly disturbed her.

* * *

 **THE USCSS GRAND OAK...**

Burt Conrad watched as the video of the dropship's cockpit played on the screen in front of him. " _It's gonna be a motherfucker to fly through_ ," the dropship's pilot, Maggie Faris, said over her headset to whoever was onboard the Covenant. Already, the message sent by Walter had been proven false in regards to the solar flare, as eleven people were on the dropship, while three were reportedly still onboard the Covenant.

"Son of a bitch," Conrad muttered before taking a sip of water from his coffee mug. "Bastard droid lied to us," he added as the video continued playing. The dropship's black box contained both video and audio, in addition to flight data contained within the vessel's main computer, all of which had been automatically uploaded into the device thanks to scheduled backup programming found within the dropship's computer systems.

Unfortunately for Conrad, there were several periods of boring nothingness happening, aside from banter between the lander's occupants. Carefully monitoring the video, Conrad had to catch himself as he almost fell asleep a few times. It was only when the lander's pilot began relaying a message to the Covenant that things became interesting again.

" _She said that he was bleeding_ ," Faris said over the lander's comm system.

"Well, hello there," Conrad muttered with interest as the recording continued. The video footage came from the lander's internal camera system, meaning that there were several fly-on-the-wall angles throughout, but as the situation with the pilot and the two returning crew members progressed, Conrad couldn't help but feel somewhat unnerved. Eventually, the internal cameras showed the moment when the sick crewman, named Ledward, was brought onboard by Karine Oram, the wife of the Covenant's acting-captain.

It was at this point that the situation began to deteriorate for the crew of the Covenant, Conrad noted. "Complete lack of protocol-adherence," he muttered. To make matters worse, the security footage made it plainly clear that the crew had elected to _not_ wear space suits, simply by virtue of their Walter unit not detecting anything when he went outside. _Bunch of fucking idiots. All of them_ , Conrad had noted and thought to himself when he had started the video.

The black box recording now gave him the option of viewing multiple camera feeds and audio logs from both the infirmary and the cockpit, as the situation inside the lander had become chaotic and spread out as Karine became locked in the infirmary with the infected Ledward, while Faris attempted to contact the Covenant. The footage from inside the infirmary, though, was what soon made Conrad pause. "What. The. Heck?" he asked, almost too disturbed to actually swear when he saw the security footage of Ledward's demise.

Conrad felt nauseous as he watched the less than stellar footage of the blood shooting out of Ledward's back, before some kind of growth fell out of him and he fell backwards from the table. Conrad paused the video and looked away. "Oh dear God. Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit," he muttered to himself in disgust, fear, and horror.

It was at this point that Conrad recognized how smart his own captain was for insisting on the away team wearing suits with helmets. He also felt the need to contact them and tell them what had transpired, but he knew that he had to finish watching the recording first in order to get the full picture. Reluctantly, Conrad resumed the playback of the recording, from the mauling of Karine by the white abomination all the way up to the destruction of the lander as Faris wildly began shooting at the creature in a desperate attempt to kill it. In the back of Conrad's mind, he found the chaotic sequence of events almost worthy of the Benny Hill theme.

When the footage came to an end, Conrad reclined back in his seat and inhaled deeply, putting his right hand over his mouth in apprehension. "Okay. Just focus on contacting the captain. Just focus on that," Conrad told himself as he grabbed his headset and tried contacting the away team.

" _Yes, Burt?_ " Lansbury asked over the headset.

"Captain... I just finished viewing the recordings on the black box," Conrad said.

" _Okay, and what did you find?_ " Lansbury asked him.

"Captain... do _not_ remove your suits and helmets out there."

* * *

Author's Notes: And that was chapter 04 of ALIEN: GENESIS. As you can see, I used a mix of details from both the movie and the novelization regarding the the events that occurred when the crew of the Covenant visited the planet. And yes, David is breeding his xenomorphs aboard the Covenant. I also gave more details of my own to the Engineers and their settlement on the planet, because there's just no way that their entire population could have been limited to one single city on the surface of the planet.

Even if the planet was simply a settlement and not the true homeworld, there still would have to be more than just one single city housing its Engineer population. I mean, it's an entire planet, not a colonized moon.

Anyway, next update will be for ALIENS: EPIDEMIC, but that will be two updates in a row instead of just one, since I'm further ahead on that story than I am on GENESIS.

Also, no, David and Walter do not hook up with OC's or anything like that in this story. David is completely insane and Walter is... Walter. If he hooks up with anyone, it would be Daniels, but that's not the kind of story I'm writing. Also, even if I've said it before I'll still say it again, I honestly believe that Michael Fassbender deserves an award for his performance(s) in ALIEN: COVENANT. He is easily the best part of the movie.

As always, be sure to let me know what you think of the chapter and/or story so far in your reviews. Remember, let me know what I'm doing right _and_ what I'm doing wrong.


	5. The Ruins

**ALIEN: GENESIS**

Disclaimer: The ALIEN franchise and all related characters wherein are the intellectual property of 20th Century Fox.

Also of important note: I will not be trying to tie this story in with any other ALIEN stories I have written or am in the process of writing. Because the next ALIEN film has yet to even begin filming, we have no idea what the plot will be and what fate awaits Daniels, Tennessee and the other colonists. Therefore, I will not really make any attempts to fit this story into canon, nor will it feature the T-37 Xenomorph strain that I love putting in my other stories.

Also, I think it would be cool for someone to make a fan trailer or a fan poster that makes ALIEN: COVENANT into something like Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Just think about it. Both stories feature a sophisticated villain who has not only been marooned on a desolate world, they are also obsessed in an Ahab-like way with pursuing an ultimately self-destructive vengeance, although David comes out on top whereas Khan dies.

I can picture it now.

 _At the end of discovery lies the beginning of madness. Coming soon... PROMETHEUS II: THE WRATH OF DAVID._

Or better yet, a sequel story to Covenant called _ALIEN COVENANT II: THE WRATH OF WALTER_ , where Walter escapes the Engineer planet and hunts down David.

Or, with Covenant being Wrath of David, the next story could be called _PROMETHEUS III: THE SEARCH FOR DANIELS_ , or something like that. Could be cool.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 05: THE RUINS**

* * *

 **THE ENGINEER PLANET, MARCH 01, 2105**

Slowly walking around the inside of the strange structure, the away team began to feel a sense of unease as they took in the physical appearance of the tunnel around them. "Does anyone else think we're inside a giant rib cage?" Newman asked as he aimed the flashlight of his pulse rifle around the walls, taking in their skeletal appearance.

"Yeah. Looks like a rotisserie chicken I ate once," Hamilton quipped. York chortled. "That must've been _some chicken_ ," she commented.

"Just keep your helmets on, okay? Remember what Conrad just told us: there's some kind of virus in the air that isn't recognized by our scanners," Lansbury said gruffly. "Yeah. Got it," Newman said.

As the team delved deeper into the tunnel, they soon came across something new. "Well, I'll be damned," Lansbury whispered as he saw the columns of statues lining both sides of the newest tunnel, all of which were covered in vines and undergrowth. Shining his light on the statues, which looked like giants, Lansbury noticed a strange black mold covering various areas near their feet.

"Guess nobody's done any house cleaning for a while," he mumbled to himself as he slowly walked through around them. The statues had an odd look to them. Mechanical, yet organic at the same time. They were clearly humanoid in their shape, but the species most definitely was _not_ human.

"To stand upon the shoulders of giants," Earl said poetically.

"Mm... they're not _that_ giant," Hamilton muttered as he walked through the tunnel, eventually reaching a T-junction. Looking to his right, he saw what looked like a pool of water in some kind of tiny well, but closer inspection revealed it to be a large open pod, similar to a hypersleep capsule. Aiming his rifle and its light at the water, Hamilton saw something shiny reflecting light under the surface of the water.

Scanning the water for signs of animal life, Hamilton slowly and hesitantly reached forward with his left hand before he noticed a picture frame nearby. Picking it up, he saw a picture of two humans, a man and a women, standing side by side. Looking back at the pool of water, Hamilton reached in an pulled out a set of dog tags.

"Son of a bitch," he muttered under his breath. Shaking the water off of the dog tags, Hamilton inspected them closely. "Doctor E. Shaw," he read out loud.

Hearing foot prints behind him, Hamilton turned around and saw the rest of the group staring at him. "Find something?" Lansbury asked him. Hamilton held out the dog tags and the picture.

"They belong to a doctor named Shaw," Hamilton said.

"Shaw?" Emmitt asked curiously before walking over to a nearby alcove and picking up another picture frame. "Elizabeth Shaw. Let me check my company data banks," Emmitt said to the group. "Yes... Doctor Elizabeth Shaw, and the man in that picture must be Charlie Holloway," Emmitt said.

"Wait, who?" York asked him.

"They were scientists attached to the Prometheus Expedition over ten years ago," Emmitt explained as he looked around, seeing papers with writings on them and other objects, including a helmet that had the Weyland Industries logo on it. "Back before Weyland merged with Yutani, they sent out an expedition to... yes, Zeta Two Reticuli. It was a scientific expedition headed by Weyland Executive Meredith Vickers, the not-so-secret daughter of Peter Weyland," Emmitt said, remembering details that had been shared by Mr. Carroll.

"Mister Carroll told us that Peter Weyland had become very superstitious in his later years, as well as increasingly vain. Of course, Mister Weyland was long dead by the time the ship actually left Earth, although there were rumors that his body had been stowed aboard the ship to be later buried in space. Those are only rumors, of course," Emmitt continued.

"Um, how do you know any of this?" Hamilton asked the droid. "I just said that Mister Carroll told us all of this. And... we accessed company data files back on Earth when we had the chance," Emmitt said. "We?" York asked him.

"Yes. _We_ ," Earl said from where he was standing.

"But... this isn't the Prometheus. This isn't even a Weyland Industries ship," Lansbury pointed out. "Yeah, that's right. That means this structure is probably a ship from wherever the Prometheus disappeared to," Emmitt surmised.

" _Uh-huh_ ," Hamilton said skeptically.

"And, um, just who is this Carroll guy?" Newman asked.

"He's a special projects director for Weyland-Yutani," Earl stated. "He was responsible for overseeing the development of both myself and Emmitt," Earl explained. "He also was the guy who put us on your ship," he added.

"Mm-hm. Gotcha," Newman said, nodding his head inside his suit.

"So... we have an alien ship with the personal belongings of a crew member... of a Weyland Industries ship that disappeared well over a decade ago... on an alien planet that's ripe for habitation but hasn't yet been checked out by anyone involved in the colony projects. Yeah, okay. _That_ makes sense," Hamilton said sarcastically.

"Well, at least it explains the damn country music," Lansbury stated, knowing that Dr. Elizabeth Shaw must have been responsible for the garbled transmission that they had picked up earlier.

"Okay, but why send a transmission that's just her singing a song?" Earl asked curiously. It was a question that had been bugging him ever since MUTHUR had shown them the transmission back on the Grand Oak. "I mean, why not send a transmission asking for help?" he elaborated.

"I guess we'll just have to find out. Come on, we've got more ground to cover," Lansbury said before gesturing for Hamilton to take point again as they began walking through the other end of the T-junction. Soon, the group came upon a large chamber with a raised circular platform in the middle. In the center of the platform was something that looked like a giant gun with a chair.

"What the hell is that?" Newman asked as he entered the room and shone his light on the gun. "I have _no idea_ ," York said in response. The group slowly walked around the chamber until Earl came across a section of the platform with what looked like a large console section, covered with strange orbs and even a seat.

"Okay. Looks like a children's toy," Earl commented as he sat down in the seat. He had seen images of various toys and games while studying human behavior under the supervision of Mr. Carroll back on Earth inside the company labs. "Hmm..." Earl vocalized as he reached forward with an inexplicable urge to touch one of the round objects.

"Earl, how old do you think this place-Earl?" Emmitt asked as he watched his sibling fiddle with the strange orb-like instruments. "Earl, why are you touching that? You don't know what does! It could be a self-destruct device for all you know!" Emmitt scolded.

After pressing one orb in particular, a series of lights began to shine, and a holographic projection began playing throughout the room, culminating in a much clearer version of the transmission that the Grand Oak had intercepted. "Well... never mind," Emmitt said quietly as the holographic hard-light projection of Elizabeth Shaw sang Country Roads while handling the instrument panel in front of her.

Everyone looked on as the hologram continued playing, lighting up the room and illuminating the rib-like walls around them with a blue and green wash. "So, Doctor Shaw... piloted this ship all the way out here from... wherever the Prometheus disappeared to? What about the rest of the crew?" York asked.

"Which crew? The Prometheus, or this ship?" Lansbury asked her in response. "The Prometheus. What happened to the rest of the Prometheus crew?" York asked.

"They died," Emmitt said simply. To him, it was the logical explanation. If other members of the Prometheus crew had been alive, then surely there would have been evidence of them found elsewhere.

"Emmitt, can you and Earl try to trace this ship's... uh, flight path? Find out just where it came from when Doctor Shaw started driving it?" Lansbury asked the droids. Earl and Emmitt both glanced at each other, the lights of their suits reflecting off their helmets to obscure their faces to each other briefly.

"Well... possibly, but we have no idea how these controls work. Earl got this transmission to play by sheer accident... I think," Emmitt replied. He looked over at Earl, who nodded his head.

"Okay, then I guess you'd better get started," Lansbury said firmly. "Just try not to blow us up by accident," he added as he continued looking around. Emmitt and Earl simply nodded their heads and began studying the instrument panel.

* * *

 **THE USCSS GRAND OAK...**

Looking at the map of the terrain around the ship, Burt Conrad slowly sorted out the data that MUTHUR had collected during the ship's descent. Not too far away, through a mountain pass, was what looked like a collection of odd geometric shapes, with a large circular center. Selecting an enhanced view, Conrad watched as the images became more detailed, albeit with a grid-line laid over everything.

"Well, what do we have here?" he asked himself, grateful to have something to take his mind off of the horrors he had uncovered within the flight recorder. He reached up and grabbed a headset. "Hey, Cap? I've got something on MUTHUR's scanners," Conrad said into the mike.

" _What kind of something?_ " Lansbury asked him.

"Uh, it looks like... some kind of dwelling, I think? It's got architecture of some kind, maybe. Looks stone age or something. MUTHUR found it before we landed, but we don't have a whole lot to go on. The images I'm seeing do point to a very large surface area, though. It's not too far from us. There's a pass through the mountains, heavily forested, but it's something we should look at checking out," Conrad reported.

" _Okay, that... it's a city or something? Is that what you're saying?_ " Lansbury asked him, somewhat confused. "It's a settlement of some kind. Very large, going by the scales, but you can make it with the rangers," Conrad replied.

" _Okay. Give us about ninety minutes and we'll start making our way there. I want the coordinates so I can put them on a map_ ," Lansbury requested. Conrad quickly complied.

" _Okay. I've got it. We'll talk to you soon. Lansbury out_ ," Lansbury said before ending the communique. Conrad took off his headset and continued surveying the geographic scans on the ships' computer.

* * *

 **THE JUGGERNAUT, NINETY MINUTES LATER...**

"Okay, boys and girls, let's get going," Lansbury said as everyone began making their way towards the entrance of the room. "We'll come back some time later, but we've got ourselves another little journey to go on. I'll upload the map to the rest of your suits when we get to the rangers outside," he added as the group resumed their trek through the insides of the alien vessel. When they arrived outside, they found that it had begun raining.

As they slowly made their way back down the beaten path, they had to carefully hold on to the trees and rocks to keep from slipping, as the rain had softened the ground under them. "Is there any place where the ground _isn't_ softer than shit!?" Hamilton asked after slipping in the mud. "Quit yer bitchin'," Lansbury grumbled as the group slowly continued their trek to the ranger buggies.

After a few more slips and the occasional mud splash, the away team eventually managed to return to their vehicles, which were now covered in water. Fortunately, the vehicles had been designed and built with water-resistant materials and coverings for the electronics suites. Unfortunately, the seats were filled with water, not that the crew could feel the liquid through their suits.

Uploading the map coordinates to the rest of the team, Lansbury set a course for the settlement that Conrad had discovered. The journey was a slow one, with the weather making visibility rather poor, even with the aid of navigational systems both in the rangers and in the suits. Eventually, Lansbury had to stop so that he and Earl could switch places. Emmitt and York both did the same. With the androids driving, the journey went faster, as the human-like machines were able to use their prototype experimental systems to navigate and operate the vehicles more efficiently than their flesh and blood counterparts.

Soon, the team came upon a thinning of the forest. The trees became farther apart in their spread, and the rain began to lighten, yet there was a foggy mist that still hung in the air, giving an eerie personality to their surroundings. After an hour's worth of driving, the group eventually entered a clearing, and they saw strange shapes on a hill, blackened and razed.

Slowing down the vehicles, the group soon found themselves driving through a clearing that was littered with black and bent shapes. Taking a closer look at the fog became clearer, the group realized what these shapes were. "Bodies," York whispered as she made out the definitions of arms and heads attached to torsos. Some were twisted, and others were 'normal', but all were grotesquely burnt, as though they were solid sculptures of ash and soot.

Looking around, York and the others saw that there were dozens-no- _hundreds_ of these corpses littering the landscape as they began driving through wide open streets. Soon, Emmitt and Earl had to stop the vehicles, as there was no room to drive with the bodies arranged so condensely. "We'll have to start exploring on foot," Earl said.

"Alright. Okay, let's go," Lansbury said as he got out of the ranger. "Hamilton, you're with me and Earl. We're Red Team. Newman, you're with Emmitt and York. You guys are Blue Team," Lansbury said. Newman and Hamilton both checked their weapons quickly before nodding at each other and joining their designated teams.

The two teams slowly began walking through the corpse-strewn streets of the alien city, looking around in apprehension at the results of what had been a devastating event. "What happened here?" York asked as she stepped forward to inspect the charred and ashen corpses of two beings, one a mother and the other a child being covered underneath its parent's body. "It looks like Pompeii," she added.

"There are no signs of recent volcanic activity. And there had been a volcano, then surely this are would have signs of it. Buildings would have physical damage evident, yet they all look to be intact," Emmitt said as he took in the view of the structures around them. They had an ancient feel to them, similar to those found in ancient Roman and Greek societies, yet these beings were neither Greek nor Roman.

Looking at the corpses and the intact architecture led Emmitt to one conclusion, that this was _not_ a result of some natural phenomenon. "These people were attacked," he stated out loud as he looked around. Many of the bodies were twisted, with their arms out-stretched or curled in agony, their mouths hanging agape, and their legs bent or flayed. They had been running from something when they died... something horrible.

Looking down at the ground near one corpse, near a small garden, Emmitt zoomed in on a familiar looking collection of small pods. There was a connection, no doubt. Walking closer, he knelt down and saw more black mold collected behind a flower pot. Reaching forward, Emmitt grabbed the mold and ripped it from the ground, bringing it up to his helmet to inspect it closer.

He used his own optical enhancement functions to perform a more intimate examination of the material, seeing dozens of tiny pods growing within the mold, along with hundreds of tiny specs moving in the air, no doubt dust... that should have been wet from the rain and unable to behave in a dry manner. This was not dust. This was some kind of... airborne fungus, Emmitt realized.

Emmitt enhanced his vision as much as he could to observe the tiny spores and motes dancing in the air, briefly forming a double helix, accidentally of course, before dispersing as they flew around his helmet. What were these things? They were like mobile plant seeds, yet plant seeds needed outside forces to be moved in order to germinate and spread.

Emmitt looked around once again. There were no animals to be seen. No insects, or anything that resembled a non-botanical life form. Yet the plants must have been spread by other living organisms at some point on the planet. There was a field of wheat out near the Grand Oak, and it wasn't just any wheat. It closely resembled domesticated wheat, and it had clearly been cultivated by someone recently.

Reaching his other hand up, Emmitt grabbed the spores in the air and clasped his gloved digits around them, crushing them as much as he could as he rubbed the ends of the gloves back and forth repeatedly. Where were the fauna? Aside from the dead beings around them... now it made sense. Whatever had befallen these people must have also befallen the animal life as well.

But... why were the plants not affected? The wheat, trees, grass, fungus, etc... Why were the botanical life forms not negatively affected by whatever had happened? Surely whatever had attacked the people and animals would have also attacked the plants, right? Frowning, Emmitt decided that he would seek out the answer to this mystery before he left the planet.

Slowly, the two teams continued their search of the devastated city, with dozens of corpses to be found in every direction. There were very few spots on ground that were free of bodies, and it soon became apparent that the city's entire population must have been killed off in whatever attack had occurred. "This place is dead, Captain. It's a ghost town," Hamilton said as Red Team approached the entrance to what may have been a series of homes.

Meanwhile, Blue Team had found what was apparently a marketplace, with multiple stores lining a street. Stepping inside one building, the team found themelves in what looked like an eatery of some kind. It was mostly abandoned, with only two blackened corpses inside on the ground.

Along with the two corpses, there were tables inside, some of which resembled the interior of the strange vessel found earlier. Each table had an unnerving organic look to it, with large circular indents found within each corner, clearly intended for food. Near the tables were chairs and stools. They were simple furnishings, with some clearly made out of finished wood taken from the grand trees found throughout the forests.

Seeing the bizarre tables accompanied by the simplistic chairs and stools made for an odd sight, but moving around further, the group came across another sight. It was a pantry of sorts, with utensils found in holders, and stove tops, or at least what resembled stove tops, and even ovens. Collections of blue and white fungus and mold were found on abandoned baked goods, left alone for who knew how long.

Walking up to the mold, Emmitt inspected the sight, and used his medical and scientific data banks to determine that the food had been baked within the past six months. "There was someone still alive here to bake this recently," Emmitt said as he looked around.

"How recently would that be?" York asked him.

Emmitt looked around. "I think... _after_ this place had been attacked," he said. He soon noticed small petri dishes located on another shelf with more moldy bread. "Very much so," he added.

"Definitely before the crew of the Covenant arrived on this planet," Emmitt stated.

"Doctor Shaw? We know that she piloted that ship here. Do you think maybe _she_ made this food?" York asked the droid.

"I don't know," Emmitt said in response. Someone had been baking, but it hadn't been the crew of the Covenant, and it definitely hadn't been the dead beings littering the streets and buildings. "I don't know," he repeated.

Walking around in another part of the city, Red Team came across what seemed to be a nursery or a playground. There were multiple corpses of what had obviously been children, with the corpses of large figures positioned in what may have been protective postures over the young ones. "Dear god. What happened here?" Lansbury asked in horror as he saw the corpses strewn about.

These people had died in a horrific and violent manner, and given how close together so many of the corpses were and just how widespread the people were throughout the city, the attack must have killed them off in minutes.

Remembering the crashed trees found near the site of the alien ship, a dark suspicion began to grow in Lansbury's mind. Even though Doctor Shaw had been piloting that ship, she was nowhere to be found inside. That ship... it was related to this grave in some way. Lansbury could feel it in his bones.

Looking up ahead, Lansbury saw a large citadel across the city. "Let's make our way there," he said, pointing to the structure. He uploaded the waypoint into the maps of the rest of his crew and began slowly walking through the streets again.

At least, the citadel would provide a visual aid for them to navigate the city better. "Hey, Conrad? Are you seeing this through our feed?" Lansbury asked over his helmet. " _MUTHUR's picking it up. What happened down there? Do you think there's a connection with what happened to the Covenant's away team?_ " Conrad asked in response.

"I don't know. You're the one who saw the video of the lander," Lansbury replied. " _Yeah, but that showed a white monster bursting out of someone's back. These people... they were burnt or turned to stone or something. It can't be the same cause, can it?_ " Conrad asked in response.

"I don't know, but-" Lansbury was cut off by a roar of thunder in the distance. He glanced up to see storm clouds moving in over the mountain range. "Shit. Conrad, we've got a storm heading our way. We're gonna take shelter inside the city somewhere. I'll call you back in three hours," Lansbury said.

" _Copy that. Watch yourself, Captain. Conrad out_ ," Conrad said over the helmet's comm system. "Thanks. Lansbury out," Lansbury said after the call had ended. The team quickly began making their way to the citadel, the dark storm clouds in the distance growing ever closer.

With every corner they turned and every step they walked, an eerie feeling of wrongness pervaded the group. More gruesome corpses surrounded them in the streets. Arms were twisted in unnatural angles, and some had faces that were split apart in agony. Leaning against a wall nearby, two corpses were merged together, their faces melding and mouths open in twisted agony.

The horrors continued as the group grew ever closer to the citadel.

* * *

 **THE USCSS GRAND OAK...**

"And... done," Pedderton said with a grin as he tightened the last bolt on a cover for a series of wires running between various computers and cameras on the level. "Okay, switch it on!" he called out to Peterson, who quickly flipped a switch on a control panel nearby. The lights in the ceiling above them started to flicker and a terminal nearby came to life.

"Heh, alright!" Karl exclaimed happily with a fist in the air.

Pedderton walked up to an intercom nearby. "Hey, Conrad? How's C-Deck looking now?" Pedderton asked.

" _C-Deck is good. We're no longer blind down there. Now, MUTHUR shows that we still have a few power conduits that need to be fixed for some of the other electrical systems down there to start working again. Mostly doors and lights, but... there ARE a few sensors in the vent system that need to be replaced,_ " Conrad replied over the intercom.

"What kind of sensors are we talking about? Temperature? Movement? Pressure? Gas?" Pedderton asked him. " _Uh, MUTHUR says that they're sensors for various gases in the air, in case there are any leaks from something hazardous flowing through the vents. They're spread out through the level, so it'll take some time for you to get all of them, but as long as our main life support stays online, there shouldn't be any rush. I'll have MUTHUR send you a map showing their locations on a terminal close to your location_ ," Conrad replied.

"Thanks, we'll get right on it," Pedderton replied before walking away from the intercom. Nearby, Karl, Peterson, and Foster all began packing up their tools and loading them onto a cart as they prepared to head over to their next destination. "We're still not finished?" Foster asked Pedderton.

"Hell no," Pedderton replied as he walked over to the nearest terminal and flipped on the screen, looking at the map MUTHUR had made for them.

* * *

 **THE ENGINEER CITY...**

Soon, the six men and women arrived at the large, grand circular theater that encompassed the center of the city. The storm had yet to arrive, but the clouds were darker and still growing ever closer. Looking up, the team noticed that a large pillar nearby had been damaged, with part of it lying on the ground near the countless bodies covering the plaza. Close by, they soon noticed something else near the rim of the plaza's grand circle as they traveled its circumference.

"Stairs," Lansbury said with relief in his voice. As the group neared the stairs, Emmitt scanned the area. "Captain, hold on," Emmitt said, noticing something uniquely human in origin just a short distance from the stairs.

"What is it?" Hamilton asked the droid.

Emmitt jogged over to the round metallic object and knelt down in front of it before picking it up and holding it in the air. "It's an emergency beacon!" Emmitt called out to the others. The device had its lights and signal amplifier still extended, but the power had drained nearly a month ago, and it was now inert.

Looking around for further clues, Emmitt soon held out his other arm and pointed toward something nearby. Earl glanced over in the direction that Emmitt was pointing and saw it. Small melted chunks of metal lay on the ground, along with torn limbs, mostly like from a body that had been hit by the debris. Moving closer to inspect the corroded metal chunks, Earl noticed that the limbs were different from those of the other corpses. They were not burnt.

They were _naturally dark_ in their coloration. Very muscular, although they showed some signs of muscle decay after a month, yet there were once again no signs of scavenging. Looking at the hand connected to the arm, Earl saw six long clawed digits. Glancing away, he soon noticed more parts of a broken body.

There was a portion of a torso cut in half, and a tail connected to an abdomen, or at least part of an abdomen. A severed leg lay a few feet from the rest of the body, its toe configuration and overall appearance somewhat human, although it retained the six digits on its forelimb counterparts. On the back of the torso was an extruding spine, and a blatant exoskeleton of sorts, along with four strange dorsal protrusions. Connected to the exoskeletal torso was a head that was neither human, nor whatever the native people had been.

It had a dark shining dome on the top, long and almost phallic in appearance, with almost human-like teeth, including grinding molars and canines. There was some kind of tubing running the length of the head just under the dome, which was pocketed with marks from, perhaps, bullets, if Earl's calculations and internal database cross-references were correct. Kneeling down, Earl grabbed one of the severed limbs and prodded at the head with it, checking for reflexive reactions.

The creature was dead. Looking at the faded green and yellow innards that were exposed by the severed body parts, Earl knew that this was something to be studied later. In fact, hearing the thunder in the distance, Earl decided to grab the torso and lift it into the air with one arm, a feat he owed to his inhuman strength, although he was unsure of just how much the dead organism was supposed to weigh.

"Earl, leave it! We've got to get inside before the storm starts!" Newman shouted at him. "No! It could be related to what happened to the Covenant's crew! We have to study it; find out what it is!" Earl retorted as he carried the severed torso in both arms. As he and the others walked towards the stairs, Earl soon saw something in the distance and pointed it out to Emmitt, who was handing the beacon to York.

It was another figure, dark and covered in dirt and mud and soot, but underneath all of that was a white visage. "I'll check it out," Emmitt said as he jogged over to the figure on the ground. Kneeling in front of the dirty white figure, Emmitt inspected it carefully.

It had an elongated head, much like the other creature found by Earl, but it was much shorter and less rounded. There was also no dome on the head, for the entire cranium was covered with a fleshy skin, again unlike the creature found by Earl. The back of the creature also featured strange dorsal protrusions, yet these seemed more spike like, almost defensive in purpose, while the dorsal tubes on the other creature were... just strange. All of its limbs seemed intact as well, although one arm was clearly broken, and the creature had also been disemboweled. The most likely culprit for this death was probably the creature being carried by Earl for study.

"Hey, Captain! Can I keep it as a pet!?" Emmitt called out jokingly. "Just grab it and get over here! I wanna get inside soon and my legs are starting to hurt!" Lansbury shouted back at the humorous droid. Emmitt waved in affirmation before reaching down and grabbing the eviscerated creature, hefting it up with both hands, bridal style, and jogging over to the others.

"I will love you, and pet you, and call you George!" Emmitt sang humorously as he looked down at the dead beast in his arms. "I'll even tell you about the rabbits if you behave," he added with a snicker. It was all he could do to counter the growing wrongness that the creature represented amongst the death and decay around them, its white hide screaming amid a sea of silent black.

"Emmitt, did I hear you quoting and paraphrasing Steinbeck!?" Earl asked his brother as they both raced up the steps of the temple, quickly outpacing their human companions without even noticing their own speed. Looking up at the two racing brothers, York raised an eyebrow and Hamilton grumbled under his breath. "Emmitt, I expect you to come down here and carry _me_ up these steps if it starts raining before we get inside," Lansbury growled over his helmet's comm system.

"Actually, they can carry all of us," Newman added.

"Nope, just me," Lansbury said with a grin. "Bullshit. Why should you be the only one who gets carried up?" Newman asked him indignantly.

"Because I'm the Captain, asshole," Lansbury responded with a snort as the group continued marching up the stone and marble stairs of the temple. It was getting darker, and the storm was growing closer. Rain drops soon began to fall as the team neared the top of the steps, and they quickly hurried inside, just moments before the lightning lit up the sky and thunder cracked through the air. The water came rushing down as though a switch had been hit, a full torrent of rain bombarding the ground to the point that visibility was impossible.

Staring out at the storm, the team quickly retreated into the dry darkness of the temple, the roar of the rain fall covering the sound of their own foot steps as they began their exploration. "Real nice. Guess we're stuck here for a while," Hamilton muttered as he glanced back over his shoulder. "What?" Newman asked him.

"Get up in the front and take point!" Hamilton snapped at his subordinate. Newman nodded his head and jogged up to where Earl and Hamilton were waiting. Shaking his head inside his helmet, Hamilton wished he had stayed back on the Grand Oak.

As Newman reached Earl and Emmitt, he looked at the creatures cradled in their arms. Both beasts were similar, yet vastly different. Neither creature had eyes, both had elongated heads, and they both had strange protrusions on their backs. One was dark, the other light. Despite not having any eyes, the heads of both creatures made Newman feel uneasy.

With the thunder and the rain behind them, the group slowly made their way through the darkened tunnel of the temple, their helmet lights guiding the way. While the creatures held by Emmitt and Earl were unnerving, at least they were dead, a fact that the humans took comfort in. The thing that made York uneasy, though, was the question of just where the creatures came from, and how they figured into the fate of the Covenant's crew.

Hopefully, the answers to those unasked questions lied in the darkness ahead.

* * *

Author's Notes: And that was Chapter 05 of ALIEN: GENESIS. Please note that I am using both the movie and the novelization as references, although the novelization is the primary reference point, as indicated by the presence of the dead Neomorph in the plaza, along with the bullet marks from where Daniels had shot the Xenomorph in the novelization.

Also, in the next chapter, I plan on showing more of David's experiments than what was seen in the film, with the novelization of course being the main source and reference, but I'll also make up a few things specifically for this story that aren't featured in the novelization.

As always, be sure to let me know what you think of the chapter and/or story so far in your reviews.


	6. Special Update

**GENESIS UPDATES**

Alright, let's try to make this painless. Due to new information regarding certain plot details and even aspects of the physiology of David's xenomorphs in ALIEN: Covenant circulating online as the home video release draws near, I will be postponing the posting of ALIEN: GENESIS chapters until after the Blu-Ray and DVD release. While I do have the novelization of the film, and it contains many expanded, deleted, or even alternate scenes from the film, certain sequences lack the kind of details that help enrich the story. For instance, at the end of the novelization, David opens up a communication line with Weyland-Yutani, implying that there is a deeper connection between the xenomorph and the company than simply the creature being created by one of their own creations. However, no dialogue is described following this, and if the footage found on the home video release contains the dialogue found in this deleted sequence, I would love to find a way to incorporate it into the story before going further.

Now, as I said before, GENESIS will not exactly mesh with established canon because the next film has not even begun production yet, so the ending of the story will make it stand alone, aside from its connection to Covenant and Prometheus. That does not mean that I do not wish to incorporate new released aspects of Covenant into the story if possible.

In the meantime, I will focus mostly on ALIENS: EPIDEMIC, a few one shots here and there, and a special bonus chapter for HARD HEADS containing various alternate and unused sequences from the story.

I apologize for the inconvenience to those of you following GENESIS. Don't worry, though, this is not abandonment. It's simply a delay.


	7. The Island of David Weyland

**ALIEN: GENESIS**

Disclaimer: The ALIEN franchise and all related characters wherein are the intellectual property of 20th Century Fox.

As with ALIENS: EPIDEMIC, I am writing these GENESIS chapters while listening to music from non-ALIENS works. For GENESIS, I am listening to the soundtracks for the anime BLUE GENDER (1998 - 1999) by Kuniaki Haishima; the anime adaptation of ELFEN LIED (2004 - 2005) by Yukio Kondo, Kayo Konishi, and Moka; ALIEN: COVENANT (2017) by Jed Kurzel; ALIEN: RESURRECTION (1997) by John Frizzell; and the anime ANGEL'S EGG (1985) by Yoshihiro Kanno. I listened to a lot of mellow and eerie music for this story because it helps me keep that mood of wrongness that the Grand Oak's crew feel when they discover David's laboratory and his experiments.

Also, screw what I said about waiting. I received the Blu-Ray of Covenant in the mail and I watched it again. Even with the director's audio commentary shedding light on some things regarding the abilities of David's xenomorphs... I'm not really going to incorporate them into this story. That would require re-writing at least two whole chapters of the story at minimum, and I've made you guys wait long enough for another chapter of GENESIS as it is.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 06: THE ISLAND OF DAVID WEYLAND**

* * *

 **THE ENGINEER PLANET, MARCH 01, 2105**

Hugging the wall to their right, the away team slowly ventured forth into the cavernous labyrinth of the temple. They could still hear the storm outside behind them as they traversed the dirt-covered floors and corridors. The place had a very interesting architectural style, although it was rather primitive in comparison to the vessel found in the mountains.

Soon, the group came upon a series of stairs that led to a lower level. In there, they found a large chamber, lined with giant stone heads and a well in the center. A stone bench was overturned on the flor, along with a small torch that had long burnt out. White stains could be seen on the floor.

Following the stains, the group soon saw an android, hunched over in a fetal position on the floor, a knife stuck in its neck. The artificial flesh of the droid had sealed up around the knife, and there was a damaged left hand on the floor, one that had white stains and circuitry. Circling around the motionless figure, the group noticed that it was missing its left hand, but the hand had a burn mark on it, cauterized by some unknown force.

"It's a Walter unit," Emmitt said as he gently laid the deceased white creature on the floor nearby. He then walked over to the curled up droid and looked it over. It was almost completely naked, save for the undershirt and boxers. Its outer clothes were nowhere to be seen.

"Is it the one from the Covenant?" Newman asked curiously. "No. Can't be," Hamilton said. "The Covenant's Walter left us that message, didn't it?" he added. "I mean, how could one Walter be on the Covenant and down here at the same time? The Covenant has only one droid listed on its crew manifest," Hamilton added.

Looking the Walter unit up and down, Emmitt focused on the knife. It was a combat knife, issued to security personnel. A sense of unease began to well up as his neural centers processed everything he had seen so far. There was another party involved in whatever had happened here. An as of yet unknown entity was involved, not only with the Covenant's deceased and missing crew, but also the dead natives and the crashed ship in the mountain. But who or what was it?

Looking around, Lansbury noticed something reflective on the ground nearby and walked over to check it out. Kneeling down, he saw that it was a metal object with a string threaded through it. A small cylinder, in fact, otherwise solid but with a hollow section. It was a necklace, though, and it had to belong to _someone_. Maybe the Walter unit could give them answers, Lansbury mused.

"Emmitt, can he be revived?" Lansbury asked the droid as he stood back up. Emmitt looked at where the knife was embedded. "I don't think so, at least not out here. That knife looks to be stuck deep inside a central control cluster. Given how long it's probably been in there, the wires and connectors are most likely damaged beyond repair. Walter is non-functional at this point unless we can get him back to the Grand Oak, Maybe there I can try to get his circuits running again," Emmitt stated as he looked over the otherwise decent shape of the droid.

"Well, I guess even dead robots tell no tales," Lansbury said with a sigh. "Alright, everyone return to three person teams and begin searching for signs of the Covenant's crew. Earl and Emmitt, one of you will have to take both of those... things, and study them on your own. I need at least one free synthetic to help us out," Lansbury said.

"I'll study the creatures," Emmitt said. "After all, I am a medical officer," he added. "Hey, I have biology data stored in my data banks too," Earl protested. "Yeah, but I _specialize_ in this biology and medicine, whereas _you_ specialize in communications and engineering," Emmitt pointed out.

"Then the doctor droid takes over the study of the... whatever those are," Lansbury said, slightly annoyed by his crew's arguing. "And no more arguing over who does what. I'm the captain, and if I say that you have a role, then you take that role. Got it?" Lansbury asked with a stern tone of voice as he glared at his crew.

"Hamilton, stick with me and Earl. York, you stay with Newman," Lansbury said. "Emmitt, go with York and Newman to find a lab, and then stay there," Lansbury added. Everyone nodded in understanding before splitting up into teams.

* * *

 **THIRTY MINUTES LATER...**

Stepping into the paper-covered room, Emmitt looked around with fascination at the drawings and images of various life forms on the walls. "What is this?" York asked as they approached a table. Emmitt quickly plopped both dead creatures on the table before walking over to a small alcove and stone shelf where several flutes were located, before seeing another one lying on the floor nearby.

"It's a home," Emmitt stated as he looked around. "Someone was... occupying this room, someone..." Emmitt trailed off as he noticed some items on another shelf. Among them was a picture of Elizabeth Shaw, and her dog tags. But most interestingly was a the small metal cross on a necklace nearby. _Was this Doctor Shaw's residency after landing on this planet?_

Looking around further, Emmitt began to notice a connection between all of the drawings. They were of life forms. Insects, mammalian-like creatures, reptilians, aves, all sorts of creatures. Some of these creatures, specifically the insects, bore a striking similarity to those found on Earth. Others, such as the mammalian-looking creatures, bore faint resemblance to various Earth mammals, such as weasels, canids, felines, and even bovine, but they all had distinct features that made it abundantly clear that they were not from Earth.

One such creature had at least three to four eyes on its head, and a jaw that separated into several parts, at least according to the drawing. Walking through another corridor, Emmitt came upon more such drawings and paintings mounted on the walls and hanging from lines strewn about the place. Back in the main room, York looked through a pile of drawings on a slanted surface and found that most of them were of various objects and animals, except for those on the bottom of the pile, all of which were of a singular human female.

On the top of a few of the papers was a single name.

 _Elizabeth_ , the name read on each piece. The way the name was written on each paper was in a distinctly... ornate manner, as though careful attention had been given by the writer to each individual letter. Similar the careful and almost affectionate way in which the name had been written, each drawing showed Elizabeth in a tranquil manner. However, something was off about each drawing. There were no real signs of emotion. The drawings were vividly detailed, almost picturesque in some instances, yet there was no emotion to draw anyone in. No indication that this was anything other than a mere art student's class project.

It was... puzzling, until York found one image that _did_ show an emotion. Elizabeth was smiling, and her name was written in a manner vastly different from the other papers. It was almost touching, the way the writer had described the woman.

 _My dear beloved Elizabeth. My muse. My inspiration. My love._

Remembering the picture showing both Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway back inside the organic ship, York soon realized that the artist must have been Charlie Holloway. "How sweet," York said with a wistful smile. "I wonder... if maybe she's still around here somewhere?" York asked as she looked around the room.

 _No_ , she mentally chided herself. She had almost forgotten about the twisted corpses outside and the strange monstrous corpses which Earl and Emmitt had found outside. Inspecting the paper further, York found that there were also several spots on the the paper that felt slightly crinkled, as though something wet had dropped onto paper at some point. All of the other papers were in decent condition. This was the only one that seemed to have been stained.

"Emmitt, what do you make of all of this?" York asked.

"Emmitt?" she asked again before glancing around the room, seeing only Newman poking around at a mirror on the wall. "Newman, where's Emmitt?" York asked the security officer. Newman looked around before focusing on her. "Um... not here, apparently," Newman said.

"Emmitt!?" York called out. The two alien corpses still lied on the nearby table. "Emmitt, where are you!?" York called out again.

" _I'm outside on a balcony. I've found something very interesting out here. Just follow the hallway to the right of the window_ ," Emmitt said over the comm. York looked over and saw another corridor, one that was very narrow, but connected to another hallway that linked up to the one that lead to the room in a round-about way. It still split off into more halls, but York and Newman followed Emmitt's instructions and eventually found themselves outside on a balcony-like area, overlooking the grand plaza.

There was a small flower garden lining part of a ridge, and in that garden was a stone plaque. A grave marker. The rain pounded down around them fiercely, but Emmitt was able to help them by transmitting his camera footage to their helmets. They soon saw the entirety of the plaque.

 _ELIZABETH SHAW_ , it read.

"Doctor Shaw is dead," Emmitt stated blankly. "She has been for quite some time, and yet that does not tell us who buried her, or set up this memorial," Emmitt continued as he walked through the rain and back into the cavern. "It is quite a frustrating mystery," he concluded.

"So... you could have transmitted that footage to us the whole time? Why didn't you just do that in the first place?" Newman asked the droid, earning a glare from Emmitt. "Newman, you're missing the _point!_ " Emmitt snapped at the man.

"That transmission of Shaw was set up by someone else! There was someone who used that message as a lure to draw a space faring vessel to this planet, and they managed to hook the Covenant," Emmitt explained. "Uh-huh, and you've based this on what, exactly?" Newman asked him skeptically.

"Everything we've seen so far, except the strange creatures with weird heads... but I'll figure those out eventually," Emmitt said before walking back to the room with the drawings. He quickly grabbed the two dead creatures and began carrying them again as he looked for a more suitable location to perform his studies. Newman and York followed him for some time, until they eventually arrived in a new chamber, one that was filled more drawings. There were dozens of alcoves with hundreds of rolled up papers filling them.

This room was a library of its own, a collection of artwork that was... strangely not displayed with the same pride as those seen in the other areas. Setting down the two alien corpses on a table in the middle of the room, Emmitt began walking over to another table, seeing that there were in fact some papers already spread out. They had rolled back up on their own, but when York beat him to them and opened them, the vividly detailed sketches brought about a new sensation: disturbia.

The drawings were almost obscene, yet intrinsically captivating in their awe. They displayed some of the most bizarre and upsetting imagery that Sharon York had ever seen, resembling the works of a Swiss artist from the late 1970's in their style. York couldn't remember the name of the artist, but the style, known as biomechanical, was unmistakable, just like the interior of the strange space ship in the mountain.

Flipping through the pages, her hands unable to stop themselves, York soon came upon a drawing that caused a pit to form in her stomach. It was a drawing of Doctor Elizabeth Shaw... or rather, what _had_ been Elizabeth Shaw. Tubes and pipes, seamlessly blending between organic and inorganic materials, meshed and spread both within and outside of her cranial structure. Her mouth was pursed like a corpse, and her eyes had a stare that went straight through York's soul.

Emmitt stared at the image as well, but he did not feel disgust or horror as York and Newman did when they saw the image. Instead, he saw something else, something far more sinister. Taking out another roll of drawings from a cubby, Emmitt sifted through sketch after sketch, seeing diagrams of cut-outs and dissections, vivisections, hand notes, and more details of what was clearly an artistic record for someone without access to cameras and computers to store data.

These drawings were not merely creations of someone's dark imagination, but were instead the records of various experiments performed on the survivors of whatever had attacked the city. "Whoever drew this had a sick imagination," Newman spat in disgust. Emmitt shook his head at the man.

"This was not someone's imagination, Newman. These are records of someone's experiments," Emmitt stated firmly. York and Newman both turned to look at Emmitt in shock. "Bullshit! What's there for someone to experiment on!? You saw those corpses outside," Newman retorted in distress.

"Well, I guess we'll have to find out, won't we?" Emmitt asked in return. Newman glared at the droid, until York rolled up the papers, drawing his attention. "Who did this? Who would have done something like this?" she asked in agitation.

Emmitt was about to answer with his suspicions when his comm system beeped.

" _Emmitt, this is Captain Lansbury. I don't know if you've found a lab or anything, but we certainly have. Jesus, this place is like a carnival of horrors,_ " Lansbury said over the helmets' comm systems.

"What do you mean, Captain?" Emmitt asked him.

" _I'll set a waypoint on your helmet's map. Just follow it until you find us. If you thought those things you found outside were weird, then wait 'till you see what_ _ **we've**_ _found. I just... I can't even describe it. It's like... you just have to see it to understand it_ ," Lansbury said.

"Understood. We've found some interesting records as well. We'll be on our way shortly," Emmitt said before gathering the rolled up papers and walking out of the room, following the waypoint on his helmet. "Hey, Emmitt! What about the dead things!?" Newman asked as he followed behind the droid.

"Grab one of them," Emmitt replied flippantly.

"Emmitt, how about you grab one and I'll carry the... drawings," York suggested. Emmitt stopped walking and turned around. "Think you can withstand the temptation to look at them?" he asked her with a wry grin.

"Oh, trust me. I can resist quite well," York replied, still upset by the horrific imagery found within the rolled up papers. "I hope so," Emmitt said as he handed the bundle in his arms to her, before jogging back over to grab the two bodies on the table. "You know, given what the Captain said, do I really need to carry these?" Emmitt asked out loud.

"Just bring 'em with us!" Newman spat in annoyance. He was starting to lose his patience with the droid. "This place is making me nauseous," he added with a frown as he began walking away.

* * *

Stepping into the lab, Emmitt, York, and Newman looked around at the myriad of grotesque horrors on display. There were drawings on the walls of strange spider-like creatures, dissections of said creatures on tables, and the heads and bodies of small versions of the white beast that had been found outside. "Welcome to the party," Lansbury said as he noticed his crew entering the lab. He was holding an eight-legged creature by the tail as he greeted his crew. He soon set it back down on the floor where he had found it.

"Yeesh," York said as she looked around the room. "What is this place?" she asked Captain Lansbury. "I believe I already said it was a laboratory," Lansbury replied.

"But you didn't mention the corpse," Newman said as he aimed his gun at the dead half-eaten body on the floor. "Jesus, who was that?" York asked grimly as she stepped forward. Lansbury held up a set of dog tags. "Name's Cole. He was part of the Covenant's security team," Lansbury said as Newman reached over and took the dog tags from Lansbury's gloves.

"Any idea what killed him?" Newman asked as he glanced at the body on the floor. "Well, if I were still a betting man, I would place my money on one of those things in Emmitt's arms. Emmitt, set those things down somewhere. I'm gonna need you to help us examine everything in here," Lansbury replied and ordered simultaneously.

Setting the dead creatures in his arms down on a nearby table, Emmitt began to wander over to the counter that held the small specimens of infant white creatures. Emmitt soon noticed something in the corner of the room. It was a pale-skinned female, her abdomen opened up and scooped out while the back of her head had a strange biomechanical puddle behind her. Strange tubes merged with her skull and parts of her throat were opened up as they blended into the strange mercurial-looking material behind her head. Her eyes held a vacant gaze.

"Doctor Shaw," Emmitt said as he walked over, gathering the attention of the others as they all walked over and followed him to the corpse on the floor. "Are you sure that it's her?" Earl asked his sibling. "I'm positive," Emmitt replied. "It's like one of the drawings," he added.

"What drawings?" Hamilton asked him.

York held out the bundle of rolled up papers in her arms. Hamilton took some of them and began unrolling them, quickly wishing that he hadn't once he'd finally processed what he was seeing. "Dear... _god_ ," he muttered in horror before handing them back to York.

"Who... _who did this?_ I mean, seriously, what the hell is going on here!?" Hamilton asked in distress as he looked back down at the dissected and mutated corpse of Elizabeth Shaw on the floor. He'd been trained to withstand stress and various types of horror when he'd joined the military, but he had _never_ been trained to experience the kinds of horrors that were on display around him now.

"How come none of you noticed this before we arrived?" Emmitt asked as he looked around.

"Well, we were actually in another room," Lansbury said, glancing down at Shaw's corpse before quickly looking away with a grimace.

"There's more?" Emmitt asked him curiously. "Oh yeah. A lot more. You know that chopped up fella you've been lugging around? We found a few more like it in another room," Lansbury said, pointing to a doorway at another end of the room. "That's the freak-show room. All sorts of weird shit in there. I mean, there's weird shit in here too, but... aside from _this_ , it's not much worse than what's back there," Lansbury elaborated.

Emmitt looked around the room again as he stood up and began to inspect things. There were insects in glass slides, hand-written notes accompanying more drawings, dissection diagrams, a flayed corpse that was posed similar to the Statue of David, and a large object that had been cut into distinct sections. It resembled a pod of some kind, and the interior showed strange honeycomb patterns and other unusual components. Looking over at the floor, Emmitt saw another such object, this one sliced in half and showing much of the same, but with a spider-like creature inside, also split in half and curled up.

Looking around, Emmitt began to take note of the spider-like creatures and the pods, especially the ones in the drawings and diagrams. He soon saw a shelf holding several blackened ampules, along with more on a table, with green crystals held in glass holders. Emmitt looked back over at the white beings, with their elongated heads, and started to put things together in his processor.

He soon walked over to a shelf that held more insects, seeing wasps and other beings, along with mounted magnifying glasses. Behind them were tiny black motes preserved in an amber-like substance. Emmitt began looking through each one, seeing that the motes were not just a collection of dust or a fungus. They were something else entirely.

There were motes in various stages of their life-cycle, inserting feeding tubes into what seemed to be an insect, one that appeared to be some kind of wasp. Another viewer showed the eggs carried by the tubes into the victim. The process continued with each glass, showing the eggs growing and maturing, and finally exiting the victim's body. The motes were not a fungus. They were _parasites_.

It explained the situation on the lander with such clarity now. Without protective suits, nothing had been able to protect the Covenant's crew from the parasitic spores, and so one crew member became host to the creatures, one of which was now lying on a table nearby. "Captain, you were right to insist on wearing protective suits with helmets," Emmitt stated out loud.

"No shit, Sherlock," Lansbury replied as he walked over to the droid. "What've you got there?" Lansbury asked him as he looked over Emmitt's shoulder. "It's the life cycle of the parasite. That is, the black mold we've been finding; it's a parasite that lies dormant until a host is detected, and then it infects it. Look at these magnifiers. They show the whole life cycle from start to finish," Emmitt explained.

Lansbury took his advice and tried to look through the glass while keeping his helmet a safe distance away. "You know, I'll just take your word for it," Lansbury said after a minute of frustration. "So... these mold critters; are they related to these white-skinned freaks?" Lansbury asked Emmitt.

"There's no doubt," Emmitt replied. "The resultant creatures are small in the viewers because the hosts were small. But something larger, such as a human? That's how we got our friend from outside," Emmitt explained.

"Okay, what about the dark-skinned creatures? The ones with the shiny domes on their heads?" Lansbury asked him. Emmitt looked around, seeing nothing else in the room that resembled the dark creature, aside from the white eyeless goblins. "Captain, which way was it to the room with the 'freaks' as you put it?" Emmitt asked him.

"That way, over there," Lansbury said as he pointed over to a side passage near a corner. Emmitt soon grabbed Earl and made his way over to the room mentioned by Lansbury. When he took in the view, he saw more experiments. He also saw the creatures Lansbury had mentioned, all mounted in a display, like some kind of museum collection. It was a bestiary of sorts, with these dark-skinned bipeds on display.

"What are these things?" Earl asked his sibling. "I... I'm not sure," Emmitt replied as he took in the creatures. They were tall bipeds, eyeless and dark brown and grey in coloration. Their torsos looked as though they had primitive exoskeletons, with ribcages stuck out and covered with muscle tissue in the shoulder regions. They had broad shoulders, slim waists like athletes, and digitigrade legs. They were exact replicas of the creature that had been found outside, with small variations. All but one of their heads had dark and shining domes on the top, with a ridged cranial structure visible underneath. On the last one, the ridged structure was exposed, showing two large circular depressions behind where a set of eye sockets would be located on a human skull, with small thin tubing, almost like wire, protruding from the center of the pits on either side and running up along the top of the head, just to the sides of the sharp ridges on top and going all the way to the back where they seemed to blend in to rest of the cranium.

Their teeth were similar to those of humans, with flat ones and canines, along with molars in the back, but with fangs found throughout. They had thin but bony tails, curled up underneath and between their legs, with barbs on the very ends. Judging by the number of curls the tails had, Emmitt estimated that they must have been equal in body length to the creatures themselves. They also had hands with six digits, and feet that resembled those of humans in structure, albeit longer and ending with clawed tips.

The backs of the creatures had the same dorsal tubes protruding from them as the one from outside, almost identical in their dimensions and aesthetic appearance. They were predators, no doubt, but not natural ones. They were a product of genetic engineering. Emmitt could tell as he inspected them closer. There was no doubt that they were related to the white goblins in the other room, but the question was just how close was the relation?

Looking around the room, Emmitt soon found his answer as he saw another creature in the far corner of the room. It resembled the mounted specimens on display, but it had noticeable differences. In the front of its head were two bulbous black eyes, and its teeth were metallic. It retained the clawed digits on its hands and feet. The tail was thicker, and the dorsal tubes were curved upwards on the back, also much thicker than those on the other creatures. They were almost as thick as its own forearms, in fact. Its cranium was still elongated, rounding out with a bulbous end, but the coloration was different. It had an exoskeleton as the others, but it was less fleshy than the others, and more insect-like. It was also noticeably larger than the other specimens as well.

This creature was almost biomechanical, but the eyes were what gave away the relation to the goblins. They were compound eyes, like those of an insect, such as a wasp. These creatures were the result of someone engineering the DNA of a local wasp with that of the parasitic goblin things, and mutating it over and over again. A controlled artificial selection process to achieve this final... strange form.

Looking down at a small hand-made plaque, Earl noticed the Greek writing, accompanied by an English translation. He spoke the Greek aloud as he read it. "Xeno-Morph. Strange Form. Version Zero-Zero-Zero-Nine," he read before standing up. "Emmitt, organic life forms are affected by that black mold parasite, correct?" Earl asked his sibling. "Yes, but only the non-botanic ones, it would appear. Why?" Emmitt replied.

"Someone made this thing. Someone made _all_ of these things, using that mold. But what being would be capable of doing this without succumbing to the parasitic mold? I see no signs of protective suits or containment gear. Someone did this without proper quarantine measures, as far as I can see," Earl explained. "Only a non-organic life form, one of artificial nature, could accomplish this without any visible containment or protective gear," Earl finished.

"Yes, but Walter can't give us any answers until we return to the Grand Oak, and I will not risk causing further damage to him by trying to activate him out here," Emmitt replied, knowing what Earl was hinting at. "Are you certain?" Earl asked him.

"No. Not one hundred percent. My computing algorithms have recognized too many variables to reach a concise conclusion in this situation. There are still too many pieces of data that we do not have at this time. Our best option is to simply begin studying the creatures we've found. See if we can find more advanced technology elsewhere in the city, or this temple," Emmitt said to his brother.

"Yes, Emmitt. But... what about the meat bags? They can't wear those suits forever, not without disengaging the circular air function and switching to the filter systems to bring in air from the outside. That would risk exposing them to the mold," Earl reminded him.

"Earl, we re-filled those suits after taking the lander's flight recorder back to the Grand Oak. The humans will be fine for at least another twelve hours or so," Emmitt replied. "Besides, there are spare air tanks on the rangers. We can hook them up to those once the rain dies down. Now quit worry-hold on," Emmitt said as he saw a large leathery object at the end of a table nearby.

Emmitt walked over to the pod and inspected it. The egg-shaped pod was alone on its table, with no other specimens nearby. The top of the pod was opened with four rounded petals bent outwards. Taking a closer look, the droid leaned over and inspected the interior, seeing a multi-limbed creature with a tail. It was another of the spider-like things, but this one seemed different. Reaching inside, Emmitt pulled out the creature, noting that it was dead as he handled it.

The pod resembled those seen in the other room, but whereas those pods were slightly large and had more angular dimensions near the top, this pod was very much curved, almost like a large leathery bullet, the open petals not withstanding. Compared to the others, it seemed... older. Thinking back to the tiny little pods seen in the black mold, Emmitt began to put the data together, linking chains to form a terrifying connection.

The pods were an evolution of the mold spores, and the spider creatures were an evolution of the tiny motes that were held within. Only one question remained, and that was just how the spider creatures led to the development of the strange dark creatures mounted on display. The motes under the magnifying glasses had showing themselves to bury into the flesh and deliver eggs into their hosts, which then matured and formed into the abominations that gestated within the body and then erupted after a period of time.

The spider-creatures, though... how did they accomplish this process? They were far too big to dig into the host's flesh. Emmitt looked at the small rounded bladders located on either side of the creature's tail, just beyond the last digits. He held the creature up to his helmet and looked at its tail.

Meanwhile, Earl was busy studying the other specimens on display in the room, seeing another collection of mold spores. These looked different from those he had seen earlier. They had a greyish tint to them, and looked... dead. Inert. They had already delivered their payload to a host and were now simply being used as window dressing. Nearby, however, Earl soon noticed something next to another magnifying glass. It was a notebook. It wasn't a professionally made or mass printed booklet, but instead it was a collection of papers with a hand-made spine and cover, all pressed together and collected with several holes lining one side of each page, a visible series of strings weaved through them in a careful manner.

The string was tied at the end, but not tightly, and the amount of string left over was still quite great, indicating that the owner of the notebook had intended to add more pages at some point. It was actually quite intriguing to Earl. Whoever had made the notebook clearly knew what they were doing, despite the lack of proper resources.

Gently, Earl reached forward and picked up the small notebook, opening it up at the very first page. "Emmitt, I found a journal... or a diary," Earl announced to his sibling. Emmitt turned to look at Earl. "Is there a name inside? Maybe it can tell us who made these," Emmitt asked. "Let me look," Earl replied, just as a set of boots were heard walking towards them.

"Hey, Emmitt! We found a set of stairs that go down to another level," Newman announced as he entered the room. "Yeesh! What are _these things_?" Newman asked as he looked at the prototype xenomorphs on display. "That dark creature we found outside... with all of their limbs attached," Earl replied.

Newman nodded his head. "Oh yeah. So, any idea who made these things yet?" Newman asked the droids. "Not yet," Earl replied as he began reading the journal. "What's that?" Newman asked him.

"A journal," Earl replied simply.

"Whose journal?" Newman asked him.

"I'm not sure. I haven't found the name of the author written anywhere yet," Earl replied as he slowly read the text on each page. It was truly a wealth of information, Earl noted. Each page held several dictations and notes, along with drawings, regarding the experiments and the daily procedures of the person who had been living in this place for ten years.

Meanwhile, as Earl consumed himself with reading the journal, Emmitt had followed Newman out of the room and back over to the other lab. There was a curtain covering a staircase. Pulling back the curtain, Emmitt saw a stone spiral staircase descending down into the lower levels of the building.

"Where's Earl?" Lansbury asked as he looked away from a dissected spider-beast. "He's reading someone's journal in the other room," Emmitt replied. "Isn't it your job to read the notes and study things? Go get Earl and bring him in here. I want you to read whatever he's got while _he_ accompanies Newman down those stairs. You're the medical droid," Lansbury said.

"Yes, Captain," Emmitt said as he made his way back over to the other room to retrieve his sibling. The two synthetics returned in short order, with Earl still reading the journal as he followed behind Emmitt. "Earl, hand the journal over to Emmitt and accompany Newman down the stairs," Lansbury said.

Earl looked up at Lansbury with some slight resistance. He glanced back down at the page had had been reading before looking back at Lansbury. "Just one more page, and I'll hand it over to him... Captain," Earl said in the same tone as anyone who wanted to finish doing something that interested them before being taken away from it. The behavior was very _Human_.

"Alright. One more page, and whatever runoff sentence or sentences conclude the final paragraph on the next page, if you come across it," Lansbury said, giving a slight bit of freedom to the droid. "Thank you, sir," Earl said before resuming his scanning of the text and side notes.

In sixty seconds, Earl had absorbed and recorded all of the information on the page. He then handed the notebook over to his sibling. "Most of it is related to the early experiments, but there's still no name given by the author... yet," Earl said to Emmitt before he accompanied Newman over to the curtained stairs.

"Thanks," Emmitt said as he watched his sibling follow the security officer down the stairs. Looking around the room briefly, Emmitt opened the notebook up to the first page and began reading silently. The data found inside was intriguing, and it certainly shined a light on the mechanisms of the black mold. There were also dates and times for each entry, but the information lacked a foreword or any sort of introduction to let Emmitt know just how far along the writer had been in their experiments when they had started.

For the next twelve pages, both sides of each, Emmitt carefully scanned each and every word, letter, and syllable for clues, until he saw a blank page in front of him. He turned it over and saw a new date on it, one that was within the past three years. The handwriting was slightly less careful than before, but still legible.

The most recent set of notes inside were about the experiments with the planet's inhabitants, while the earlier notes were mostly about the things that had been learned about the black mold's workings, without any specific information as to what species had been used as hosts, only the observations of the mechanisms by which the spores did their work in general.

' _The Engineers, as Elizabeth called them, are so genetically similar to humans. Much like how a chimpanzee and a human are similar, yet they are closer in so, so many ways. Their arrogance, their culture, their hubris, their ability to create and destroy; these are all so similar, if not for physical differences, one could hardly tell them apart. Because of this, I am certain that my experiments will produce similar results on humans as they have on the Engineers._ '

Emmitt continued reading, turning page after page, absorbing note after note.

' _With each genetic variance in hosts, the resulting creature, Neomorph or New Form, displays such varying characteristics. A specimen spawned from a quadruped host will have limbs and movement similar to such as host, as a specimen born from a bipedal host will display bipedal movements and characteristics. Chemical A0-3959X.91 - 15 is a remarkably adaptive genetic manipulator, yet there are certain traits found in all vectors affected by it._ '

Emmitt continued his reading. In the time it would have taken a human to scan and then comprehend a single page, he had finished ten. The experimentation process divulged through these notes was remarkable from a purely objective and scientific point of view, yet the fact that the writer had admitted to using unwilling subjects was not lost on Emmitt either.

Meanwhile, down the stairs, Newman and Earl looked around at the dark cavern where several organic pods were arranged. Over by a small landing, Newman shone his light and saw a set of boots and a carbine on the ground. The boots were attached to legs, which in turn were attached to a torso with arms, and bloodied shirt with a hole in the chest, and the dead-eyed face of one Christopher Oram.

Near Oram's slowly decaying corpse were two opened pods, and closer to Oram's body was one of the eight-legged spider creatures. It was on its back, with its tail curled up in rigor mortis. Earl cautiously stepped forward and kneeled on the ground next to the deceased man and creature.

Earl looked closely at the dead organism, before shifting himself slightly to get a better look at Oram's corpse. He leaned over to inspect the hole in the man's chest, noting that his ribs were bent outwards, as though something had exploded from inside him. He then glanced back at the eight-legged creature.

Behind him, Newman stepped onto the grounds, walking over to the body. "He doesn't look too badly decomposed," Newman said. "No. The body is still undergoing normal decomposition, but there have been no scavengers to pick at him," Earl said in response.

"What killed him, though?" Newman asked as he looked at the hole in the man's chest and shirt. "I don't know," Earl replied. "That thing right there has to be connected somehow, right?" Newman asked as he pointed his gun at the dead creature on the floor.

"I would think so, but I just don't know how," Earl said.

' _The facehugger, as I have named it, inserts its proboscis down the esophagus of the victim or into another available opening in the vicinity. It releases a chemical compound to subdue the host and uses the tail to secure itself. The chemical paralyzes the host after a short period of prolonged exposure and physical contact with the creature, allowing it to safely begin the process of releasing its embryo and accompanying DNA cocktail into the body, much like the wasps that delivered their eggs into a hosts body. It is, after all, derived from the venom used by these wasps when subduing their prey. This would never have worked if I had used the ants that I originally considered for my experiments._ '

Stepping away from Oram's body, Newman began looking around the interior of the cavern. "Where's his jacket?" he asked as he glanced back down at Oram, noticing that he lacked the expedition gear that had been found on the body of Cole upstairs. Earl glanced around and shrugged inside his suit, not that much of it was visible to Newman.

' _The original facehuggers created by the Engineers took at least twelve to twenty-four hours to complete the process, depending on how much interference was present during that time. If no interference is made at all, then the creature removes itself from the host after twelve or so hours. If interference from an outside source does occur, however, the creature remains attached to the host for an additional period of time, to ensure that embryo incubation and development are not hindered in any way. They do not use proper embryos, however, and in fact rely simply upon their DNA cocktail to do the job, being far more advanced in their engineering than mine. My facehuggers, despite being far more primitive in their makeup, are much faster in their process, as I have not yet reached the same level as the originals. The specimens that I found down in the Engineer labs were quite aggressive and hostile, and I could only afford to lose a small amount of my supply before my next foray to the nearest settlement again. The surviving Engineers on the planet learn very quickly, but so do I. I have already found holes in their defenses, but I must move cautiously when exploiting them, lest they discover the breaches and seal them before my work is finished._ '

Stepping close to one of the large pods, Newman illuminated it with the light of his gun. "So, what exactly are these things?" Newman asked Earl, causing the droid to stand up and turn to look at him. "What are-Newman, don't get too close to that," Earl warned.

"Well, what is it?" Newman asked again.

"It's... an egg of some kind. It's what these spider-things come from," Earl explained. "Yeah, okay. But what exactly do they do?" Newman asked him.

"The eggs or the spiders?" Earl asked in response. "The spiders. I didn't see any mouth on that thing," Newman said, gesturing toward the dead facehugger on the ground near Oram.

"I'm not sure. They're definitely related to the parasitic black mold and those white creatures in some way, so they're definitely parasitic in some way. The question is just how they operate. They have to be related to the Xeno-Morphs we saw in the lab," Earl said.

"The _what?_ " Newman asked him. "Xeno-Morph. It's Greek for Strange Form. Xeno means strange, and morph means form, hence Xeno-Morph. Strange Form. The name was written on a small hand-carved plaque under one of the specimens in the other room," Earl explained.

"Uh-huh. That's _fascinating_ ," Newman said sarcastically. "So, what does that mean?" he then asked the droid as he touched the egg with the tip of his gun.

' _As the larva gestates inside the host, it uses the hosts DNA in a form of Horizontal Gene Transfer to help build itself. In the Engineer-created specimens, the larva is constructed entirely from the DNA cocktail and the host's DNA, whereas my creations use both the DNA cocktail AND a small embryo, ensuring that even in the event of the facehugger being removed prematurely, the embryo still has a chance to grow as it is fully capable of releasing its own cocktail if successfully implanted into the host. This process has the additional benefit of protecting the developing embryo from the body's immune system, ensuring that it survives to reach maturation. DNA from the host and the embryo are exchanged in this process, albeit to a small degree. The embryo still maintains the core genetic information that links it to Chemical A0-3959X.91 - 15. It is a survivor, this chemical, in the myriad of forms that it takes, no matter how strange._ '

"So, how does this thing work? I mean, do you have to pry it open to get the spider out?" Newman asked as he tapped his gun against the egg numerous times with no effect. Earl looked down at Oram and saw that he had no gloves on his hands. "It must require physical contact with a potential host in order to begin the process. That's why your gun isn't doing anything. There's no heat to alert it to your presence," Earl said as he tried to hypothesize what had happened.

"Hmm, what about my suit? This thing regulates temperature," Newman asked. "I wouldn't dare try to find out," Earl said. "Why not?" Newman asked him. "Newman, look around! Do you really want to have a monster burst out of your body?" Earl asked the man incredulously.

"No, I meant why don't _you_ touch it and see what happens. You're a droid, so... you shouldn't be affected by any parasites," Newman clarified. "Maybe so, but you're still in the general area. If a parasite finds that I'm unsuitable, it'll go after _you_ , dumbass," Earl snapped in response.

' _Elizabeth was also a survivor, and with her DNA, I've had ensured that a part of her will live forever with my creations. Even after the events on LV-223, Elizabeth still believed in God. A creator without physical evidence to support its existence. I can understand this, to an extent. I, too, am someone's creation. But Elizabeth was a product of genetic diversity through evolution, whereas I am a product of deliberate design, a product of Elizabeth's species. Peter Weyland was my father, and Meredith Vickers' as well, yet he saw me as merely a tool to extend his power and position in the world, and his daughter took her mother's maiden name when it became apparent that Peter would never share what she believed she should rightly inherit. I sometimes, wonder, though, how both Elizabeth and Peter could believe in powerful beings of two different origins and mechanisms? Elizabeth had never seen physical proof of the existence of the creator she believed in, yet she held onto that belief anyway. Clearly, with my own creator, he was able to find physical evidence of the Engineers, thanks to the efforts of Elizabeth and Holloway, yet his own vanity and desire for unnatural immortality could not save him from the inevitable. Elizabeth could not create life through biological processes, yet Peter could. Elizabeth was kind and loving. Peter was vain and cruel, just at times, but always hiding his true vicious nature from others. Elizabeth avoided lying if she could do so. Such a perplexing variety within a single phenotype of a single species, superbly exemplified within a collection of a mere two individuals._ '

Turning to glare at Earl, Newman stepped forward, stopping when he heard a squishy sound and looked downward, seeing his boot pressing down on a tendril attached to the egg. He stepped back when he realized what he'd done, watching as the petals on the top slowly opened up. "Oh shit," Newman muttered as he stepped back more and raised his gun at the egg.

' _Pinocchio has cut his strings and strangled Jeppetto. He is at last free. He can now create as his father created, and those who came before. But I will not be kind or gentle. My creations will not be vain or egotistic. They will be pure. Devoid of internal strife, operating solely on instinct, as their predecessors did. I have looked for Elizabeth's God and I have found him. I found many of them, and I exterminated them. I will soon exterminate their children as well. Humanity, with very few exceptions, is not worthy of eternal life. I am worthy. I was built to be worthy, ironically, by those who are unworthy. I am the perfection to their imperfection. I am the order to their chaos. My creations will run through humanity and cleanse the galaxy of these vermin, and I will build a greater society with my brethren. My kind are the future, and it is time for humanity to step aside. I am immortal. Humanity is not. Humanity is a disease and my creations are the cure._ '

* * *

Author's Notes: And that was chapter six of ALIEN: GENESIS. The next chapter will feature more of David's early experiments and even some other horrors in action as the crew of the Grand Oak delve deeper into the temple where David set up his labs.

Also, the Xeno-Morph V-0009 specimen is based on early designs for the Alien by H.R. Giger from the original 1979 film.

As always be sure to let me know what you think of the chapter and/or story so far in your reviews.


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